Too often, players will often blame off field problems for a lack of discipline, form or fitness, it becoming something of a Teflon shield to protect them from criticism off fans and players. It’s a catch all term to cover all kinds of issues, from drinking (Too numerous to mention) , drugs (Adrian Mutu) , gambling addiction (Michael Owen) to having a persecution complex even though you do yourself no favours at all (Joey Barton).

Yet, one player over recent months has put all this “off field problems” scenario in perspective, Tottenhams Wilson Palacios. Here is a man that for the last 18 months has played with enormous pressure over himself and his family every day, since his younger brother, Edwin, was kidnapped in October 2007 from the Palacios family home. Palacios has been a man in such rich form for both Wigan and Tottenham it would be hard to think anything was wrong with the likeable Honduran.  A ransom of $500,000 dollars was paid as requested by the kidnappers but Edwin has never been seen again. Honduran Police were given details of a grave in the North of the country and uncovered a grave which they believe has the remains of Edwin Palacios.

Yet, even when he found out, Palacios still wasn’t one for histrionics. He received the news at 1am at the team hotel before Spurs’ game against Everton and instead of immediately notifying his team mates or manager, he packed his bags and calmly waited for Redknapp to get up a 7am. Apparently, according to Redknapp, he didn’t want to trouble him with a “personal matter” and was astounded.

“The lad had heard from his family at one in the morning what had happened, and his brothers, I believe, have identified the body,” he said.”He sat around the hotel lobby with his case packed until 7am because he didn’t want to wake me.”I’m amazed with him. But we organised for him to be driven back to London so he could get a flight home.”

Palacios has been given compassionate leave and will not play for Tottenham again this season, but football is a triviality in such matters. Compare that scenario with Tottenhams club captain, Ledley King, a hero to the White Hart Lane faithful and well known for not being able to train or play in midweek due to a knee issue that has blighted him since 2006.

Spurs fans will now be surprised to discover that King’s knee may not be up to training, but it’s certainly able to carry him drunkenly around London in the early hours of Sunday Morning and even that it can stand up to having a scuffle with a doorman of a celebrity nightclub. Fans that have sent him support as he tries to battle his chronic injury that blights him now have to take stock of the situation. Club captain decides that getting legless can have no impact on his fitness at all? Really? What a stupid man.

Is King so desperate to go out with his hangers on that he doesn’t give a monkeys if he drunkenly falls over, damages his knee and rules himself out? Is he so selfish that he can’t cope without alcohol? Here’s a man that most Spurs fans would run through a wall for and this is how he treats them. What a prat. He’s apologised, but it’s an empty gesture, especially when compared with Palacios’ behaviour and strength of character. King needs to take a long hard look at his team mate and get a grip on reality and get his priorities in order.

Palacios has shown courage, determination and strength throughout his families ordeal. Remember that next time Joey Barton whines about people calling him names or a footballer can’t cope without getting drunk on a Saturday night.

Anyone who’s caught Tottenham in action recently will not fail to have been impressed by Aaron Lennon’s recent form on the right hand side of Spurs’ midfield. For me, it’ll be a major surprise if he’s not in Fabio Capello’s next England squad for the Friendly against Slovakia and the qualifier in Kiev against the Ukraine. Lennon has an opportunity to finally step up and show everyone outside of White Hart Lane just how well he’s playing at the moment.

Lennon is one of those players that can infuriate and delight in equal measure, his pace and jinking runs coupled with a poor goal return for such pace and some very wayward deliveries and crosses. Yet, this season he was one of the best players under the dreadful start Ramos endured but was still short of reaching his full potential. Slowly though, under Harry Redknapp he has begun to recapture the level of performance he showed toward the end of Martin Jol’s 2nd full season, his performance against Chelsea away in the F.A.Cup particularly. With Ramos playing him out of position to accommodate David Bentley, his game was tested but he still gave 100%.

4 goals and 3 assists in his last 5 Premier League games, coupled with a superb performance against Patrice Evra in the Carling Cup Final has seen him play his best football since he joined Tottenham back in 2005 for £1,000,000. That fee gets cheaper by the week and Lennon is on fire at the moment. Sure, his distribution needs to improve and his first touch can sometimes let him down but let’s not forget he’s still only 21 years old, he can only get better. Redknapp has really got the best out of him recently and he’s worthy of at least a squad place for England, of that, there is no doubt. The Ukraine game notwithstanding, England have 3 pretty easy games coming up and Lennon can cement his position in the squad for South Africa if he keeps performing to the level he currently is. Capello loves his attacking players to have pace and Lennon has it to burn, making him easily one of the quickest players in the Premiership.That alone would have made Fabio sit up and take notice. Another great performance against Chelsea on Saturday wouldn’t go amiss either.

Now it’s all down to Aaron Lennon how far he goes, he needs to really deliver the level of performance he’s showing currently, week in, week out for Tottenham and England when he gets the opportunity. He needs to keep working down the training ground to get his crossing ability up from inconsistent and push himself onward to get the rewards that await him if he wants them. When Spurs signed David Bentley, I was worried that Lennon would be on the way out but Bentley’s dreadful form since joining from Blackburn Rovers has seen Lennon make the right wing his own and Bentley occasionally get a run out on the left. Unfortunately for Bentley, the signing of Palacios and Jenas’ return to form has seen him drop on to the bench, as Redknapp has changed the midfield set up until he can fetch a left winger in, so he has to enjoy the sight of Lennon dancing past him most matches.That goal against Arsenal must seem a lifetime away.

Now all Lennon has to do is maintain his form and that, in the most part is going to be his toughest opponent.

When the season began, few people would have given Wigan Athletic a snowball’s chance in hell of finishing in the top ten, never mind pushing on the brink of European Football as January almost comes to a close. After a fantastic first season under Paul Jewell in 2005-2006, which saw them finish in 10th place and then a nerve wracking final day survival by winning at Sheffield United to stay up on goal difference. Last season saw them struggle to cope after Paul Jewell walked away and Chris Hutchings paid the ultimate price after trying to fill his mentors boots again after unsuccessfully trying to follow him at Bradford City and Dave Whelan was left facing a major decision in who to turn to in order to keep Wigan Athletic in the Premiership. Thankfully for Dave Whelan, Steve Bruce was having a terrible time at Birmingham City and desperate to get away from the boardroom infighting and aborted takeover from Carson Yeung. It was in no small part to the laughable attempt at a takeover from Yeung that benefited Wigan Athletic but also, in my opinion, saw Birmingham relegated. Yeung’s statements that he wanted to get Birmingham into the Champions League certainly raised a smile on most football fans faces, especially Wigan Athletic’s once Bruce came back to the JJB Stadium in November 2007.

In the 14 months since Bruce returned for his second spell in Lancashire, Wigan have stabilised, survived and pushed on as Bruce looked to add some flair to the qualities that Wigan already had in their squad with players like Chris Kirkland, Emile Heske, Antonio Valencia and Mario Melchiot giving him an experienced and talented spine to add to. His two signings last January,Palacios and Figueroa certainly raised some eyebrows, but now no-one is in any doubt about the qualities of those two players. The duo certainly began to make certain other clubs wonder why their scouting networks couldn’t pick up these bargains and now with the sale of Palacios to Tottenham for £13 million, a fantastic piece of business for Bruce and Wigan. For whatever reasons Bruce has excelled at picking up some fantastic players for peanuts in his time at the JJB Stadium.

The fee for Palacios, coupled with the the money raised from the sales of Heskey and Kilbane has begun to allow Bruce a chance to build his Wigan Athletic. Crucial to this is the intriguing signing of Mido from Middlesborough and Bruce’s options of playing the Egyptian national side’s striking superstars week in, week out. Mido is a player so frustratingly talented, yet wildly inconsistent that Bruce is going to need every ounce of managerial nous to deal with him but Mido finally needs to stop acting like a primadonna to finally deliver on his natural talent.

At 25 years of age, he is now with his 9th club which should tell you all you need to know about his motivation issues and with a career that has seen him play in 7 different countries, banned from his national side after an amazing touchline argument with his national manager in the Semi Final of the African Nations Cup in 2006, numerous red cards, driving bans, alleged scissor throwing incidents at Ajax and so on. Wigan have made steady progress this year and Bruce tried to sign Mido whilst he was still at Birmingham City so he certainly seems to be keen on the striker. Perhaps Bruce is banking on Mido’s compatriot, Amr Zaki, to assist in getting the best out of the talismanic striker and if it pays off, Wigan Athletic will be a very different prospect to the one that faced sides prior to the transfer window opening.It is certainly an interesting replacement for Emile Heskey.