January Transfer Window: 10 Clubs Who Desperately Need a Big-Name Signing

January can be a risky time to make a marquee signing.

Whereas bringing a star name in during the summer allows a player a full preseason, both on and off the training pitch, a mid-season arrival demands that they hit the ground running.

Players brought in to bolster the squad or give a manager options without the pressure to justify a large fee or fan appetite to see them every week will have a much better chance of settling quickly.

However, sometimes a team cries out for an injection of true quality, especially if the prospect of missing out on trophies that they are expected to win is on the horizon.

Here are 10 teams who need to invest in a top-drawer addition this month.

United have had a rather conspicuous Paul Scholes-shaped hole in their midfield for much of the season, which was made all the more glaring when Tom Cleverley got injured.

Unfortunately, for all the pleasing nostalgia of seeing him back on the pitch, the actual Paul Scholes coming out of retirement is hardly the long-term solution.

United could really do with making a big signing to add creativity and dynamism to their midfield, as well as show their rivals that they can still flex some financial muscle as both the Glazers' debt repayments and financial fair play begin to bite.  

Chelsea proved last January that they have the spending power and the cache to attract some big names: Fernando Torres and David Luiz arrived on deadline day last year to the tune of £75 million.

Now Andre Villas-Boas has been brought in charged with transforming the squad and the very culture of the club, but such a project cannot be done on the cheap.

With Nicolas Anelka already gone—and perhaps several more of the old guard set to follow him before the end of the month, owner Roman Abramovich will need to fill the void if he is to stop the club falling any further behind Manchester City and their even bigger financial clout.

Liverpool spent big both last January and in the summer in an effort by new owners Fenway Sports Group to take Liverpool back up the table and into the Champions League spots on a regular basis.

They spent almost £60 million a year ago (ignoring the "net spend" argument regarding the £50 million sale of Fernando Torres) on two strikers 12 months ago, but so far this season they have scored just 24 goals in the league. Only Stoke City have scored fewer in the top half of the table.

With Luis Suarez suspended and Andy Carroll continuing to misfire, John Henry and Co. need to spend big again if they are to barge their way into what is now a very congested upper end of the table and make a return to the competition they have won five times. 

Speaking of Carroll, Newcastle still have the vast majority of the £35 million Liverpool paid them for him burning a hole in the their pocket. Or, at least that's the assertion of manager Alan Pardew, who insisted at the time Newcastle's top striker was let go that he would have the whole of that huge fee to reinvest in his squad.

So far, he has been allowed to shell out around a third of that windfall on players such as Yohan Cabaye, Davide Santon and Hatem Ben Arfa (converting the latter's loan into a permanent deal), as well as snapping up Demba Ba on a free transfer.

But the fans on Tyneside, buoyed by their excellent start to the season, are hungry for success.

Relations between the supporters and owner Mike Ashley are tentatively stable at the moment, but if he does not act to consolidate his team's upward trajectory, he could soon be the target of the Gallowgate End's vitriol once more.

Not so long ago, Lyon were the only show in town in France. Between 2002 and 2008, Les Gones won seven consecutive Ligue 1 titles, as did Brazilian club legend Juninho Pernambucana. 

They managed to maintain that dominance and also compete in the Champions League despite regularly selling their best players, but now it seems their luck has run out.

The club record signing of Yoann Gourcuff is yet to yield rewards for several reasons, but the highly-talented playmaker still has plenty of time to deliver at the Stade Gerland.

Club president Jean-Michel Aulas has worked wonders at the club, but if he can attract a true star name to OL, then they could not only get back to their previous level, but perhaps even move further.

While Lyon's slide from the top has been over the course of a few seasons, Lille's has happened over the course of a few months.

The reigning French champions are still only four points off the top of the table as things stand, but the loss of Yohan Cabaye and Gervinho in the summer and potentially Eden Hazard and Joe Cole at the end of the season.

If Lille are going to fully capitalise upon their recent success and the money that has come in as a result, a marquee name would add a great deal of lustre to the northern club and encourage other talents to join as well.

PSG would not outwardly appear to have the same problems as Lille and Lyon. After all, they have more spending power than any club has had in the history of French football, and they have used it to go top of the Ligue 1 standings at the halfway point of the season.

However, they have recently employed a manager (Carlo Ancelotti) who has a track record and gravitas enough to demand to have things done his way after his unfair sacking from Chelsea at the end of last season.

The Italian coach is enough of a name to be able to tempt some top players to the Parc des Princes, and the club's Middle Eastern owners must back him to the hilt if they are to achieve the success they desire under his management. 

The 18 months following their win of the Champions League have been rather turbulent for Inter. They lost their Serie A crown to their local rivals AC Milan and are now on their fourth manager since Jose Mourinho left.

Current incumbent Claudio Ranieri has been brought in to steady the ship after Gian Piero Gasperini's disastrous five-match reign in charge, and he is doing a decent job with the ageing and jaded squad at his disposal.

But the best way to inject fresh vitality into a grand old European super club like Inter would be to make a signing that sends the message to their rivals that they remain a force to be reckoned with, and that would help signal a new era for the Nerazzurri.

Napoli are very much a team on the rise. They may not be up right at the top challenging for the title this season, but the fact they qualified from their Champions League group ahead of the mega-rich Manchester City was a real statement of intent.

As with any upwardly-mobile club threatening the old order, there is the danger that the main protagonists who helped make the club what it is right now will be tempted away by the glamour of a true giant.

So what better way for president Aurelio de Laurentiis to let the likes of Edinson Cavani, Ezequiel Lavezzi and Marek Hamsik know that they are already at a top club than by making a headline-grabbing signing who would convince them to stay?

Bayern are a club who are not used to being desperate for anything. They have dominated the German landscape for so long, it is easy to forget that five other clubs have won the Bundesliga over the past two decades.

The club known as FC Hollywood have become used to watching other clubs usher through new players and then swoop in and poach them, most recently goalkeeper Manuel Neuer from Schalke. However, reigning champions Borussia Dortmund beat them to the punch earlier this month by signing a deal with Borussia Moenchengladbach to bring their rising star Marco Reus to the club this summer.

That act of gazumping has led to jibes aimed at Dortmund by members of the Bayern hierarchy, a sure sign that they are rattled. Bayern need to reassert their authority on their own patch by bringing in a star name of their own to remind everyone who is boss and to extend their three-point lead at the top of the Bundesliga.