JOHNGIBSON What’s the score Mike? We’d love to know if you’ve a plan for United

SO it might be Salomon Rondon in and Aleksandar Mitrovic out. United are inching painfully towards a hoped-for conclusion.

In out, in out, shake it all about. The Mike Ashley transfer dance.

Oh, how I wish that United’s owner would bare his soul in depth and allow us to try and understand what goes on in that cautious mind of his.

We’ve only ever had the slightest of glimpses over a decade and more when Ashley has decided to go in front of the telly cameras or released a prepared statement through the club.

However, wouldn’t we all love to know what are the true in-depth plans Ashley has for Newcastle United.

Why won’t he support Rafa and give his club a chance of genuine improvement when so much of the first-team foundations are in place and thus increase the value of NUFC? Why leave everything at risk?

What exactly did he mean a year ago when he declared that Benitez would get “every penny generated” by the club? None of us realised that a club supported by 50,000 ‘generated’ so little.

What does he want out of United right now, apart from possibly an extremely huge profit if he can sell at an inflated price?

What excites him in football, what initially spurred him on as an owner and a fan, or has he become so bored with United that he can’t really be bothered?

How would he like to be remembered – if he cares?

Is he willing to risk a third relegation in his dozen years up here or does he smugly believe that come what may Benitez won’t allow that to happen so there is no need to spend decent cash?

Maybe with Sports Direct the public interest in behind-thescenes activity is small and so much can be kept secret but not in football where the glare of the spotlight is unrelenting and the questions of fans never ending.

The only clue we have to Ashley’s business attitude is a rare public declaration that he can’t and won’t throw any personal money into United’s pot because he cannot afford to do so. In the meantime he is happily standing by watching a world-class manager struggle like Houdini bound in chains while other Premier League clubs of limited stature not Champions League contenders such as Bournemouth, Burnley, West Ham etc spend bigger than his in a drive for survival and more.

Meanwhile Rafa tries to wheel and deal in a transfer market about to close. To sell so that he can buy.

The latest possibility is Mitrovic going for £20m and Rondon arriving at £16.5m. Maybe a new transfer record for United – only just – but another profit for Ashley though in theory an inferior striker strictly according to price tag.

Indeed poor old Rafa has been trying to get Rondon on loan because those are the transfers Ashley likes. Why? Because they are cheaper of course.

I don’t buy the theory that price alone means Rondon must be inferior. Mitrovic’s fee has been inflated by him scoring goals a division down while the West Brom man’s cost was fixed a while back at the time he signed a new contract.

All right, all right, Rondon isn’t a lethal goalscorer but he is a line leader of the sort Rafa likes when playing with only one up top.

‘In Rafa We Trust’ is the cry of most fans and if that is the case Rondon for Mitro has to be accepted by them.

Meanwhile we all muddle on in ignorance and frustration.