Hugo Ekitike has revealed that he was ‘close’ to joining Newcastle last summer. Ekitike has become an invaluable asset for Arne Slot’s side after racking up his 13th goal of the campaign in Wednesday’s Champions League rout over Qarabag. “I don’t care about this (their fans’ reaction), I just want to play and help the team. Hopefully I will score a good amount of goals but I don’t really even think about this. “Obviously I’m a striker so I need to score goals but I need to do a lot of stuff to help the team.”