Yves Bissouma on why he likes Conte and how he's…

Yves Bissouma on why he likes Conte and how he's feeling after Covid plus Oliver Skipp update

Yves Bissouma is feeling strong again after his bout of Covid and is ready to follow Antonio Conte's plan to the smallest detail in order to be a success at Tottenham Hotspur.

The 25-year-old signed from Brighton in June but within a week of joining the club and heading out on their tour to South Korea, Bissouma tested positive for Covid and had to isolate in his hotel room for seven days with fellow Spurs newcomer Fraser Forster having to do the same and both players flew back home days after the rest of the squad.

However, the Mali international has been back in action and straight into Conte's gruelling training sessions since and in both the matches against Rangers and Roma, Bissouma has been used in a midfield pairing with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg, getting 45 minutes under his belt in both games as his fitness is gradually built back up following his week-long hotel room isolation.

"I feel OK, I’m good, I’m good," he told football.london. "Of course [the training sessions are hard], but that’s good. That makes the team stronger and that’s why we train hard.

"We have to follow what the coach wants for the team. I just come in to do the same thing that the midfield did that was there before me. We train to do what the coach wants."

At Brighton, Bissouma was once asked who he thought was the best midfielder in the Premier League and he answered: "I don’t want to be arrogant, but it’s me because in my head I am working to be the best."

When asked about that comment out in Israel after the match against Roma and whether he could really show it to be true as a Tottenham player in the upper reaches of the Premier League and the Champions League, Bissouma became somewhat shy. While that might seem like he was regretting his previous statement he did hint that he was looking to prove it to be correct.

"I don’t really want to speak about that but we’ll see during the season," he said.

So far Conte has used Bissouma with Hojbjerg and alternated the Mali midfielder with Rodrigo Bentancur, with Oliver Skipp out injured with nasty deep cut on his foot from an accidental stud impact in training last Friday at Hotspur Way that required a lot of stitches. football.london understands that the impact shook some of the Spurs players in the session and had many looking away from the incident due to the unpleasant nature of the injury.

Skipp is currently unlikely to be back in time for the Premier League opener against Southampton on Saturday as his foot heals.

Bissouma has been enjoying working with all of the Spurs midfielders this summer, saying: “Of course [we will have good partnerships], because at training we train good. Pierre, Skippy, Roddy… every midfielder. We’re trying to train hard to be good. I think we’re good."

On the Tottenham fans, he added: "Like every player, they have to support the team, not personally me but just the team. They have to support every game, we need them this season and hopefully we’re going to have a very good season."

Bissouma also added on Spurs' social media channels that he is loving life working for "crazy" Conte.

"I'm very happy to be with him [Conte] at this club because he's living football and I like that, I like the coach like him," he admitted.

"I know he can push the team higher and the players as well. That's why we're trying to do what he wants. Every training is not easy, but we're working for that, and I like him because he's crazy like me. Good crazy because he's crazy about football, and I like how he works, I like how he teaches everyone, and I like his work."

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