Marina Granovskaia has finally addressed Chelsea fans, almost two years after she departed the club in the wake of Todd Boehly’s arrival. Granovskaia oversaw player transfers at Stamford Bridge as the club’s chief executive but saw her employment come to an end after close associate Roman Abramovich sold the club at the end of May 2022.
Granovskaia linked up with Abramovich in 1997 after graduating from Moscow State University. She then began working with Chelsea in 2003, before becoming the club’s chief executive in 2014.
And in 2017 she even convinced Nike to sign a £900million shirt sponsorship deal on top of her plethora of transfer and contract negotiations.
Granovskaia, 49, has now taken the opportunity to talk directly to Blues fans in a social media video.
“I wanted to come on here real quick to say I wasn’t really sure about the whole Instagram thing but I have been totally overwhelmed by the amount of messages, DMs, blue hearts, good memories that have been coming my way,” Granovskaia told her followers on Instagram as she finally broke her silence.
“I just wanted to say a huge thank you to every one of you. I cannot respond to every message but I am reading them all. I did not expect that and I am really, really grateful. So thank you.”
When Granovskaia became Chelsea chief executive, it made her the “most powerful woman in football,” according to a report in the New York Times.
She oversaw incoming and outgoing transfer deals worth a combined total of more than £2billion, according to Transfermarkt, and saw the club win six major trophies during her tenure.
Her eventual exit came after Abramovich was forced to sell the club because of sanctions placed upon him and other oligarchs following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“We thank Marina for her many years of excellent service to the club and wish her all the best in her future ventures,” explained Boehly in a statement after the club changed hands.
Since Granovskaia left west London, Chelsea have endured a difficult time on the pitch.
Former manager Thomas Tuchel was sacked just months into Boehly’s tenure, with the Blues going on to finish 12th in the Premier League under Graham Potter and his interim successor Frank Lampard.
Mauricio Pochettino led the side to a mini-revival as they ended the last campaign in sixth position to secure a return to European football. But the Argentine parted ways with the club when the season finished.
