One signing every 'Big 6' club needs to make before the January transfer window ends

There's now just over ten days left in the January transfer window, and so far, only three of the "Big six" have made moves this month. So what can we expect as we get closer to the final week? 

Manchester City have made the marquee signing of the window signing Antoine Semenyo from Bournemouth for £65m and are soon to announce the signing of Marc Guéhi for a fee worth £20m. 

Tottenham have also splashed the cash in the window, acquiring former Chelsea midfielder Conor Gallagher from Atletico Madrid for £34.7m last week. 

With several teams yet to make any moves, will Chelsea, Liverpool, Manchester United or Arsenal dip their toe in the transfer market?

DAZN News suggests one signing all the teams could make before the window closes to improve their squad for the second-half of the season. 

Arsenal - Yan Diomande

The Gunners currently sit seven points clear at the top of the table and are once again in control of their own fate. However, they've been here before and just fallen short in three of the past four seasons.

That only other season was when they still finished second, this time to a Liverpool team that had too much quality in the first half of the season. What they've missed in all these seasons is an extra bit of clinicality and directness in attack. 

It's no different this season with Viktor Gyökeres and Leandro Trossard tied for the top goal scorer in the league with only five goals. They need more threat and despite his surprisingly good form in the cup competitions, Gabriel Martinelli hasn't been consistent enough. 

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Diomande offers directness, a willingness to run at players and beat a man that instantly creates far more opportunities and space for the likes of Bukayo Saka, Gyökeres and Eberechi Eze, who all would've hoped to have had better seasons so far. 

With already 11 goal contributions in 17 games for RB Leipzig, Diomande looks like a possibility but is also a cheaper option than PSG's Bradley Barcola or Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, who are both having worse seasons compared to their quintuple-winning season last year.

Most importantly, it would strengthen their squad and give them another option as they go on their pursuit in four different competitions. 

Chelsea - Marcos Senesi

To be honest, Chelsea have too many players to keep track of most of the time, but they need a strong commanding presence at centre-back. Despite spending around £360m on defenders in the last three years, they don't have a consistent centre-back partnership. 

Whether it's due to injury, suspensions or managerial changes, they can't maintain and develop the foundations of their backline. Jarrad Branthwaite of Everton was going to be the choice here, however, due to injury and not even making the bench against Aston Villa, he's not be the instant presence Chelsea are looking for.

Senesi is the only piece of Bournemouth's backline from last season to still be there following what was a pillaging in the summer, losing Ilya Zabarnyi, Dean Huijsen and Milos Kerkez. 

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As much as Chelsea like to spend big as well, this signing could be on the cheaper side, as Senesi is valued at around £19m. However, it would completely depend on whether Bournemouth would be willing to let another key part of their defence leave, especially if they weren't given the time to replace him. 

Senesi, being 28 as well, would bring a level of maturity and experience to this Chelsea backline, which is possibly needed at right now and some form of commanding voice and steady cohesion between the centre-backs is one of the club's main concerns at the moment.

Liverpool - Jan Paul van Hecke

Liverpool have a similar issue to Chelsea in the fact that they have a dire need for a centre-back. They have three first-team centre-backs with Virgil van Dijk and Ibrahima Konaté starting almost every game and Joe Gomez on the bench. 

Given Gomez's reliability in terms of form and injury, on top of Konaté not having the best of seasons, Liverpool could do with someone else to bolster the squad. 

Despite signing Giovanni Leoni in the summer, he suffered an ACL injury in his debut in the EFL cup and has had to undergo surgery. A player like Brighton's Jan Paul van Hecke is a leader at Brighton and would cost between 40 and 50 million.

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Van Hecke has also shown the ability to play right-back on occasion so it would prevent Slot from being forced to play Dominik Szoboszlai there and the Dutchman has shown much fewer defensive errors this season compared to Konaté.

Most importantly, Liverpool are still in a top four race, could qualify for the top eight of the Champions League and are in the fourth round of the FA cup. An injury to either Van Djik or Konaté would be disastrous, so the signing of Van Hecke would simply alleviate the pressure of playing them every game.

Manchester City - Elliot Anderson

To be honest, following the signing of Marc Guéhi, on top of Antoine Semenyo, it can be argued Pep Guardiola has completed all his business necessary this January.

However, if they were to improve in one position, it would be the Nottingham Forest midfielder, and after watching that Manchester derby, they may need him if they want any chance of catching Arsenal. 

He'd fill that position next to Rodri perfectly with his ability to not only win the ball but progress and quickly turn defence to attack being some of the best in the league. He has the most ball recoveries with 166, 59 more than Brentford's Yehor Yarmolyuk in second place, and he has the most progressive passes this season with 171.

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He fits that Mateo Kovačić style of player that City have been missing since the Croatian's departure. Of course, he wouldn't be cheap, as this recent upturn in form has him playing regular football for England and knowing Forest's owners, they could be looking for upwards of £70m. 

Despite addressing the issues of centre-back and right-wing, following this weekend's derby, it displayed City's weaknesses in midfield as Rodri was simply being overran resulting in United looking dangerous every time they won the ball back. 

Therefore, a midfielder to sit next to Rodri and play that traditional eight role is exactly what they need if they have any hopes of catching up with Arsenal.

Manchester United - Michael Kayode

On paper, it makes sense for them to sign no one, they've got Carrick as an interim, they don't know who their next manager is going to be and they don't want to decide until the summer. But this is Manchester United, and for the sake of this list, I do have to put someone on here. 

So, after somehow narrowing down United's issues to one position, I think right-back should be the focus in January if they were to buy anyone.

Diogo Dalot has looked defensively hopeless at points not just this season but last season and, despite offering some options going forward, it doesn't make up for his inefficiencies when he has his back to goal.

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Michael Kayode, on the other hand, has looked so solid for Brentford since joining from Fiorentina last winter, helping them to seventh in the table at the moment, two points off the top four, and is exactly the kind of defensive stability United need in this position. 

However, the argument can be very much made that they shouldn't sign anyone until they have their manager for the future. But it's United, so you really don't know what they're planning to do next when it comes to transfers. 

Tottenham - Angelo Stiller

Similar to Manchester City, Tottenham need that progressive midfielder archetype. Unfortunately, they don't have the pull of City or the money to compete, so Anderson is off the table, but Angelo Stiller of VFB Stuttgart could be a very viable option. 

He ranks at the top for progressive passes in not only the German league, but is also among the best in Europe for it. He's a workhorse similar to Anderson on both sides of the ball and would cost around £40m. 

At the same time, Tottenham could wait for the summer and pay his reported release clause of around £34m,  however, this is a position that needs desperate attention, so it's a question of whether they would be happy with keeping this gaping issue for the rest of the season.

 

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