Roman Abramovich’s “right hand woman” is Marina Granovskaia.
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She moved from the Russia to London shortly after the acquisition of Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and since 2010 has acted as a representative of Roman Abramovich.
She joined the club’s board of directors in 2013 and has become a more central figure in everything related to the club ever since Ron Gourlay shifted his focus to bringing more revenue to the club via sponsorships.
Roman trust a very few people and Marina, often described as the ‘Stamford Bridge Tsarina’, is one of them.
One source close to the club said, “She is basically the power at Chelsea. Roman trusts her implicitly. She’s not interested in being a celebrity but there is no doubt who’s in charge and who calls the shots.”
The club’s oligarch owner has a simple policy: If he loves a player, he gets that player! And his trusted former PA has been an instrumental behind-the-scenes influence in a string of marquee signings.
Exibit A- Fernando Torres.
Liverpool were reluctant to sell Torres to Chelsea but Marina did everything to ensure her boss get’s what he wants!
From securing deadline day deals for Fernando Torres and David Luiz to mouthing “take it or f***ing leave it” to Chelsea’s captain John Terry when his contract was up for renewal, shows the power vested in her by the owner.
She hijacked Willian’s almost done deal to Tottenham and convinced Roman to bring back Jose Mourinho.
Marina has changed the course of Chelsea’s destiny single handedly. Securing Diego Costa and Cesc Fabregas’s signature and to top it all, esnuring a healthy profit every transfer window since 2013, Marina has ensured Chelsea master the FFP commitment with so much ease.
From a time when Chelsea struggled to offload the likes of Florant Malouda and Jose Bosingwa, to now, when they are selling their fringe players for record fees, Chelsea have mastered the transfer market. Try to remember a deal where any club last challenged Chelsea for a player? Eden Hazard? With the likes of Manchester United and Manchester city interested in him, he ended up at Chelsea. Since then, Chelsea FC have secured whoever they want and whenever they want, without any competition!
Here’s to more tough, brilliant, resilient and powerful women in sports!