Mikel Obi advised me to ignore Conte’s treatment and stay at Chelsea – Baba Rahman

July 2, 2021 5:22 PM

Ghana defender Abdul Baba Rahman says John Mikel Obi tried to intervene when he fell out with Antonio Conte after his arrival at Chelsea.

Mikel Obi advised me to ignore Conte’s treatment and stay at Chelsea – Baba Rahman

The left-back was signed during Jose Mourinho’s last season with the Blues but struggled to get enough game time.

The arrival of Conte was thought to be a fresh start for Rahman but very little changed under the Italian manager.

Rather, the former Dreams FC and Asante Kotoko rearguard was shipped out on loan to Bundesliga side Schalke.

Baba Rahman unveiled by Chelsea Pulse Ghana

Speaking about his decision to leave Chelsea, Rahman said Conte did not like him and never treated him well.

According to him, Mikel Obi tried to convince him to stay at the club despite all his troubles with the Italian manager.

He revealed that the Nigerian midfielder actually advised him to ignore Conte’s antics but things only got worse, so he had to leave.

“I don’t know maybe my name was easy on his tongue, like every small thing was like ‘Baba’ ‘Baba’ and most of the players came to ask me what’s going on and I said I don’t know,” he told Joy Sports.

“The first meeting, he told me to just keep calm and keep working hard so I said that’s fine. This was in London and then we went to Austria and it started getting worse and that’s when I said no, I can’t take it anymore.”

Rahman added: “Mikel Obi told me to just stay and shouldn’t bother what [Conte] is doing, but as young as I was, I was not taking it lightly so when we went to Austria I spoke to the Sporting Director and told him [that] it is going overboard and I can’t take it.

“So they told me okay, so what do you want to do? I told them I would prefer to leave and they said no the club don’t want to sell me. So I said okay, if that’s so then I would prefer to go on loan from here.”

Rahman is expected to join Chelsea for preseason ahead of next season, having ended his six-month loan spell at Greek side PAOK.

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