AS freezing fog enveloped the Riverside Stadium during the second half of Saturday’s Tees-Tyne derby, there were times when it was difficult to make out what was happening in the distance.

But for Gareth Southgate and Joe Kinnear, standing side by side on the touchline, this weekend’s events should have provided a degree of clarity when it comes to longterm vision.

The opening of the transfer window is now exactly a month away, and having watched their respective sides huff and puff their way towards an uninspiring goalless draw, the managers of Middlesbrough and Newcastle will have looked ahead to January 1 with a sense of expectation.

At the moment, the second half of the season remains obscured by mist. By the end of January, however, it will be an awful lot clearer.

For Southgate, arguably the most dissatisfied of the two managers this weekend, the priority must be a striker.

When Afonso Alves is around, the word ‘mist’ is generally less relevant than its homophonic equivalent, ‘missed’.

Alves missed three decent chances on Saturday, and had either of them been taken, Middlesbrough would probably have gone on to win the game. The Brazilian might be his club’s record signing, but he is increasingly becoming an albatross around Southgate’s neck. At some stage, the Boro boss is going to have to be strong enough to accept that changes are needed.

Having moved to Teesside in January, Alves should now be up to speed with the demands of the English game.

Instead, he continues to appear ponderous, with his questionable touch exacerbating a slowness of movement that increasingly seems to infuriate Middlesbrough’s fans.

To make matters worse, the South American also appears to lack courage. Three times in the first half of Saturday’s game he appeared to have broken clear; three times he ended up on his backside after the slightest of challenges from Sebastien Bassong.

Southgate might pride himself on his side’s new counter-attacking style, but every now and then Boro are crying out for an oldfashioned centre-forward.

Neither Bassong nor Fabricio Coloccini will have left the Riverside nursing bruises on Saturday night.

There is one such player on Middlesbrough’s books of course, but Mido is persona non grata on Teesside at the moment, and it may be better for everybody if he leaves next month.

Southgate introduced him from the substitutes’ bench grudgingly at the weekend, and it is clear that the Egyptian’s latest recuperatory return to his homeland did not go down well with his employers.

Tensions are apparent, and the only way to remove them is to sell Mido in order to finance the purchase of a new centre-forward.

A straight swap with Wigan striker Emile Heskey would be ideal, but with Heskey currently being coveted by a number of Premier League clubs, Boro might have to be satisfied with a cut-price alternative.

Crucially, though, that alternative must be muscular.

Boro have enough guile in their team at the moment, what they lack is a bit of brute strength.

Kinnear also needs to make his team more effective in the opposition’s penalty box, but having been granted overall control of next month’s transfer budget, the Newcastle boss will not be scouring Europe for a new striker.

With Mark Viduka returning to fitness to complement an attacking arsenal that already includes Michael Owen and Obafemi Martins, the Magpies do not need another centre-forward.

Instead, they are crying out for a creative playmaker able to knit the midfield unit with the two players in front of it.

On Saturday, Danny Guthrie and Nicky Butt battled gamely against Julio Arca and Didier Digard, winning their fare share of possession and preventing Middlesbrough’s more creative players from enjoying too much time on the ball.

But when it came to instigating attacking moves of their own, Newcastle’s central midfielders were found wanting. Butt tended to pass the ball sideways, while Guthrie resorted to hitting speculative long balls that rarely found their target.

Martins was often isolated, and Owen was forced to drop deeper and deeper in an attempt to create some cohesion between midfield and attack.

Kinnear will look to add more defensive cover in January, a policy that is essential given the lack of depth in Newcastle’s squad.

But if the Magpies are to win their crucial home games against other sides in the bottom half of the table, they will have to be considerably more creative in the central third.

Joey Barton’s return from injury may help, but Newcastle’s chances of survival would be enhanced significantly if Kinnear were able to sign a playmaker in the mould of a Frank Lampard, a Steven Gerrard or even a Stephen Ireland.

Those players do not come cheap, of course, but the fact that Arda Turan, Luka Modric and Andrei Arshavin were briefly considered last summer confirms that the hole in Newcastle’s squad has been acknowledged.