1 Player Barcelona Should Be Looking at for 2016 January Transfer Window

Barcelona will be like kids in a candy store come January 1, 2016.

On the stroke of midnight, the FIFA-imposed transfer ban comes to an end after 18 months, allowing the Catalans to bring in whom they like, punishment served.

There is a note of caution to be sounded, however.

Just because they have the money to spend doesn't mean that the club should go out and exhibit any largesse.

The temptation to do so will be there of course, but such action would fly in the face of everything that the club purports to stand for in terms of its "mes que un club" ethos.

David Ramos/Getty Images

Club members have accepted the signings of Neymar and Luis Suarez, but if the club were to continue a "Galactico"-type buying policy, president Josep Maria Bartomeu might find the feel-good factor disappearing quite quickly.

Almost as soon as the most recent summer window ended, you can mortgage your house that behind the scenes, players, agents and the like have been using, and will continue to use, Machiavellian practices during the early months of the season to engineer a move away in January.

Barca won't be exempt from the same.

While there's no suggestion whatsoever that Cesar Azpilicueta, "Dave" to his Chelsea team-mates, is for sale or is actively engaged in such moves to ensure a sale, he is precisely the type of exponent where Barcelona should be concentrating their energies.

Plucking names like Paul Pogba and Marco Reus out of the air for anywhere between €40m and €80m is all well and good, but would they actually fit the template, and are they really needed?

OLIVIER MORIN/Getty Images

Azpilicueta won't come cheap, either, but is unlikely to be in the same ballpark as the aforementioned. 

Looking at things objectively, the Catalans are well covered in the attacking and midfield areas.

There is little point in buying a striker or winger, only for them to play second fiddle to the likes of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Suarez.

Buying players just because you can rather than because you need to is a recipe for disaster.

Both Alexis Sanchez and Pedro have flourished and will flourish by being employed elsewhere. In this case Arsenal and Chelsea, respectively.

Probably the one area where the Catalans are light at this point is in the left wing-back slot.

Only Jordi Alba offers anything like the excellence required from the position, and once he is injured, it becomes a problem.

Alex Grimaldo has been talked up in dispatches, but if he were ready to be Alba's understudy then it would've happened already. Trusting Enrique on this one, the youngster is obviously therefore not the answer at present.

Adriano Correia is steady if unspectacular, and if the manager wants genuine competition for places then the Brazilian doesn't provide it.

Azpilicueta will offer exactly the standard required, and Enrique then has back wing-back slots staffed appropriately. Alba and Dani Alves can no longer sit on their laurels knowing Aleix Vidal and Azpilicueta are pushing them all the way.

Phil Lythell of ESPN noted:

"

Cesar Azpilicueta is nearing the end of his third season at Chelsea and it has been his best yet. The 25-year-old Spaniard arrived with little fanfare in the summer of 2012 but has since quietly established himself as one of the most dependable players in the Premier League.

Professional yet unassuming, dynamic yet never flash, the former Marseille man is a manager's dream, executing his instructions to the letter and never performing outside of his remit.

"

The Spaniard is naturally a right-sided player of course. That he is able to routinely keep left-footed players such as Ashley Cole and Felipe Luis from the position at Chelsea says much about his suitability to the role.

He is well versed in the way that the Spanish national team go about their work and ideally suited, therefore, to a team that often has the lion's share of playing staff within the national team ranks.