TABLE FOR TOON, PLEASE! ASHLEY PLANS DINNER DATE TO MAKE UP WITH RAFA

MIKE ASHLEY will take Rafa Benitez and his winless Newcastle team out for dinner this week in an effort to build relationships after a turbulent start to the season.

Sportsmail can reveal that the owner is planning to travel to Tyneside and will foot the bill for a meal for the manager, his staff and players. Ashley saw first hand on Saturday just how bad the mood is around St James’ Park, although the source of the discontent is a summer of under-investment which has seen the Magpies lose their first four home matches for the only time in their 126-year history. There was also a close-season dispute over player bonuses for a second year running and, after intervening to resolve the issue, Ashley has kept open a line of communication with captain Jamaal Lascelles. Managing director Lee Charnley has been working to bring Ashley and Benitez closer — they have met only three times in two-and-a-half years — and this week’s visit is said to be the first step towards bridging that void. This has come against the background of fresh takeover talk, with ex-Manchester United and Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon seeking investors. At least Ashley’s return to St James’ on Saturday after a 16-month absence would have convinced him how desperate matters are on the pitch. There has long been talk of Benitez and Leicester, which intensified when Claude Puel looked set to be sacked at the end of last season. The link is fuelled by Benitez’s friendship with compatriot Eduardo Macia, the head of recruitment at the King Power Stadium who he worked alongside at Valencia and Liverpool. But Puel survived in his post and Benitez, having just taken the Magpies to a 10th-place finish, was excited by the prospect of a European challenge after what he hoped would be an ambitious summer in the transfer market. And why would he swap Newcastle, with all the potential he so keenly talks about, for Leicester, a club whose 2016 title win was a rare spike on an otherwise middling history? Well, on Saturday he had his answer. Leicester did not have to play particularly well to win, they simply had better players in every department, as happens when you spend money on quality. Both clubs, for example, have signed young English wingers from Norwich. Leicester’s James Maddison, at £22million, was the reason Gareth Southgate was in attendance and so good was the 21-year-old that he is sure to win a first England call-up this week. Newcastle, meanwhile, had Jacob Murphy on the bench, a £12m player who has started only 15 times and scored once in 14 months on Tyneside. Then there is Harry Maguire, scorer of Leicester’s second from a wicked Maddison corner. He was on Newcastle’s radar when Hull were relegated last year but deemed not good enough, especially at £17m. Maguire was the best player on the pitch here. Benitez’s biggest outlay remains Murphy. His club, under Ashley, do not want to compete with Leicester when it comes to the likes of Kelechi Iheanacho (£25m), Ricardo Pereira (£22m) or Wilfred Ndidi

(£17m). Ashley is prepared to risk minimum spend for maximum gain but that gamble will backfire this season on the evidence of their sorry start. He will, then, have to dig deeper than a round of fillet steaks if he is to break bread with Benitez.