‘I didn’t get on well with Antonio Conte’

Ghanaian left-back and Chelsea player, Baba Rahman has indicated that his strained relationship with former Chelsea coach Antonio Conte forced him out on loan from his parent club in the summer of 2017.

Baba Rahman has not been a mainstay in the Chelsea set up since his move from Augsburg in 2016 for a reported fee of €26.00m, racking up more appearances on loan than he has at Chelsea.

And in an interview with JoySports’ Gary Al Smith, the Ghanaian has admitted that a strained relationship with Antonio Conte led to his departure from the club in 2017.

According to Baba Rahman, he had initially had fruitful talks with the incoming head coach before he took Italy to the Euros, but that relationship changed when Conte joined in for pre season.

While he cannot identify the exact reasons for the change in attitude, Rahman did not feel comfortable with the coach’s “reaction” and asked then technical director, Michael Emenalo to help initiate his departure from the club.

The request to leave the club on a permanent basis was declined by Michael but a loan was initiated after the player held talks with his former Augsburg coach, Dominic Todesco, who was joining Schalke 04.

Rahman has since then been out on loan spending time at clubs such as Stade Reims, RCD Mallorca and PAOK Salonika.