A dogged tackler, who was brought in from Wigan Athletic by Harry Redknapp to add some bite to the Tottenham midfield for a big fee.

Starting his career in his own country, with Deportivo Victoria and moved with his four brothers to Olimipia when they were spotted by scouts.  Wilson soon became a star of the Olimipia team which swept all before it and his fame accelerated when he scored a late goal from the halfway line against Marathon to take the Honduran championship for Olimipia in 2006.  Having been noticed by European scouts, Wilson went for trials at Red Star Belgrade, Caligiari and Monaco, but did not sign for those clubs.  A similar two-week trial in August 2007 with Arsenal failed to lead to a transfer.

It was the trial at Arsenal, that had been kept quiet in his homeland, which prompted speculation in the local press at home that Wilson Palacios had been kidnapped.  Finally, his father had to come clean about his whereabouts and this may have given a local gang the idea of a kidnapping, as Wilson's 16 year old brother Edwin was taken from the family home, when five armed men broke in and tied the rest of his family up.  A ransom of £125,000 was paid, but Edwin was not released.

It was only when Birmingham City came in for a six month loan to take a look at him that he left his homeland.  Bruce set up a trial game against local side Coleshill FC and was so impressed they took Palacios off at half-time to make sure he remained a well-kept secret.  Palacios had been recommended to Steve Bruce by Arsene Wenger and although he made a good start, he was required back in Honduras when his brother was kidnapped.  While away, Bruce left for Wigan Athletic and the new Birmingham manager Alex McLeish had not seen enough of the player to make a decision on signing him.  This left Bruce clear to sign the player he knew well and take him to the JJB stadium for around £1 million.

Bruce paired him in the middle of the back four a lot of the time, but perhaps his best position was sitting just in front of them, where he could break up moves and break forward.  He impressed against Spurs and this obviously made him a prime transfer target for Harry Redknapp in the January window, leading to a £12 million offer reluctantly being accepted by the Latics.

Signing for Tottenham, he made an immediate impact with some fine battling performances, but there is a bit more to his game than just tackling, as he likes to get forward to have a shot, although these are not always well directed.  The Spurs fans have taken to him and with more to come from him in the engine room of midfield, he will no doubt establish himself as a cult figure among the White Hart Lane crowd.

Wilson suffered a personal trauma in May 2009, when Honduran police identified a body they found as that of Wilson's brother, who had been kidnapped in October 2007.  Following the ransom being paid, there was no further communication from either the kidnappers nor Edwin and it was only when a gang member confessed that Edwin's body was found.  Wilson received notification at 01:00 a.m. in a phone call from his mother, but with it being the morning of a game at Liverpool, the grief stricken player packed his case and sat in the lobby of the team hotel until Harry Redknapp woke up to inform him of the news and request that he be able to fly home.  In the midst of his personal crisis, his thoughts were not to disturb the team build-up for the match and Harry Redknapp praised his conduct highly.

2009-10 saw him almost a fixture in the side, as Spurs sealed fourth place in the table, but injury restricted his appearances in the next season, along with the emergence of Sandro as a dominant figure in the middle of the park for Tottenham, leading to rumours of a sale to Napoli.  However, in the August 2011 transfer window, Wilson was sold to Stoke City for between £6 million and £8 million.