INTERVIEW: New Cobblers signing Missilou 'focused' and 'ready' after five months without football

While his new club-mates were busy winning promotion via the Sky Bet League Two play-offs last month, Missilou was one of 100s of lower league footballers up and down the country watching on from home with envious eyes.

Thanks to the coronavirus pandemic, the majority of players in leagues one and two have been working from home and trying to stay fit on their own since the middle of March, and Missilou is no exception.

The 28-year-old signed on at the Cobblers this week following his departure from Oldham Athletic, and he hasn’t played any sort of match since the Latics’ 3-0 defeat at Crawley Town on March 7.

Thanks to the Covid-19-enforced lockdown, he hasn’t even trained with team-mates since the middle of March, but, much to his relief, that should all change in the next week or so when he will report to the PTS Academy Stadium for pre-season training with the Cobblers.

“I haven’t played a game since March which is a long time, and I have trained, but I need to play,” said Missilou, who was born in Auxerre in France.

“It is very difficult, and some players pick up weight, and sometimes when you run, afterwards you are tired because you are not training with other players.

“But I had to stay focused and stay ready, because the season starts in September and I have to be ready.”

A combative central midfielder, it seems that Missilou has been pencilled in to fill the space vacated by the departure of the experienced Alan McCormack in the Town engine room, describing himself as ‘I always fight for the team, and I fight for the players around me’.

He has spent the past two seasons as a regular in the Oldham first team, having gone through the academy at Auxerre and then playing for a string of lower tier French clubs, and he is well aware what the Cobblers under Keith Curle are all about.

“I have played against Northampton, and it is a good team, and I now want to give 100 per cent for this shirt,” he said.

“I am happy to be here, and I like the personality of the manager, so I am ready for the future.”

Missilou watched the league two play-offs, and was impressed with Town’s demolition jobs on Cheltenham in the semi-finals, and then Exeter City in the final at Wembley.

“The first thing I would like to do is congratulate the team for their promotion, because it is very difficult for players when they have stopped training, and then you come back to play,” said Missilou.

“That is not easy, and because of Covid-19 it was very difficult, but all the players did a very good job.

“I played against Exeter and they are a good team, so I was thinking the final may be a draw or a difficult game, but for Northampton to win 4-0 was a bit of a surprise.”

Missilou has played in the past three league meetings between the Cobblers and Oldham, and asked about who caught his eye, there were two players in particular.

“The captain (Charlie Goode) is a really good player, and he is a leader, and in the UK you need players like that,” he said.

“I played against Northampton, and there is also the number seven (Sam Hoskins) who is a very good player.

“That is one of the reasons I have come here, to play with these good players, and we can be more good in the future.”

Town and Missilou are both stepping up a level next season as they face life in league one.

It’s the first time the Cobblers have played in the third tier for more than two years, while it is a level Missilou has never played at and he knows it is going to be a test.

“League one is a strong division with some big clubs,” he said. “There is Sunderland, Portsmouth, they are big teams, and then there are the teams coming down to league one, so it will be very difficult.

“But if the team is together then we can win games and stay in league one.”

As a teenager and while starring for the Auxerre B team, Missilou made six appearances for France Under-18s, before moving on to make his full international debut for Congo.

The player still has ambitions, but says at the current time any international thoughts are very much at the back of his mind as he concentrates on life at his new club.

“I want to go on and play as high as possible. I have to take it season by season, but then we will see,” he said.

“I played for France when I was very young and starting out, and then after that for the Congo.

“For the moment though I am going to stay focused on this club, and we will see what happens. But at the moment it’s (international football) not on my mind.”