The unstoppable rise of Chelsea’s great dealmaker
Most powerful woman in football is trusted by Abramovich to negotiate all club transfer deals
During a typical Roman Abramovich visit to London in the past, he would have had no hesitation in picking up the phone to the most powerful woman in football to find out whether she had a spare afternoon to help him find a present for a friend.
These days, Marina Granovskaia is just as likely to politely tell Chelsea owner Abramovich she does not have time to go shopping, or ask one of her own personal assistants to deal with his request for a restaurant reservation. In fact, Granovskaia has less free time than ever, following the sudden departure of Michael Emenalo from his role as technical director, and has assumed even more responsibility at Stamford Bridge.
The 42-year-old’s workload may decrease slightly when Chelsea get round to replacing Emenalo – with either one or two appointments – but Granovskaia’s power has undoubtedly increased.
It is still the case that, ultimately, Abramovich makes all the decisions at Chelsea, but there is only one person at the club to whom he speaks on a daily basis. Over the course of 24 hours, Abramovich may go from discussing Chelsea’s next bigmoney transfer target with Granovskaia, to which young player is impressing in the academy, to where he would like to eat on his next visit to London.
In a business sense, it is an unconventional relationship, but it is one of the most successful in European football and has gone from strength to strength over the past 20 years since Granovskaia graduated from Moscow State University. Having started working for Abramovich in 1997 at Sibneft, the oil company he then owned, Granovskaia moved to England shortly after he bought Chelsea in 2003. Her role then was to set up Abramovich’s office in London and there was no initial plan for her to work for Chelsea. But, quickly, she was booking tickets and organising boxes for the owner’s guests, and, as she made more contacts, so her influence grew.
Not tied down to the prejudices of some football boardrooms, Abramovich asked Granovskaia’s opinion on more football-related matters and the pair started to discuss the team. Chelsea insiders believe 2009 marked a turning point in Granovskaia’s input. Didier Drogba looked to be heading out of the club, following a turbulent season in which he had been dropped by Luiz Felipe Scolari and earned a European ban after clashing with referee Tom Henning Ovrebo after the Champions League semi-final defeat by Barcelona. Not everybody inside Stamford Bridge
wanted Drogba to stay, but Granovskaia was adamant the striker should be given a new contract and promised she would take responsibility for any subsequent bad behaviour from the Ivorian.
Drogba signed a new three-year contract, during which time he helped Chelsea win a Premier League and FA Cup double and scored the winning penalty in the Champions League final against Bayern Munich. From that moment on, Granovskaia took the lead on football decisions and she clinched the deals to sign Fernando Torres for £50million from Liverpool and David Luiz from Benfica.
She joined the Chelsea FC plc and Football Club boards in 2013 and has been in charge of Chelsea’s transfers ever since, also negotiating contracts for first-team and academy players, as well as organising the club’s loan army.
Club lawyers believe Granovskaia was responsible for 120 contracts, across all age groups, during the summer. Taking into account meetings with clubs, players, agents and parents, it is conservative to estimate that she will have conducted moe than 500 negotiations. In the early Abramovich era, Chelsea would simply ask “how much?” but Granovskaia has helped change that. She prides herself on trying to beat rivals to signings without having to pay more and she is renowned for walking away when the asking price is too high.
Those close to Granovskaia, a dual Russian and Canadian national who speaks several languages, also insist she never swears – not in English anyway. One agent told The Daily Telegraph:
“With Marina, no means no, which is actually quite rare in football. No can often mean ‘let’s have 20 more meetings and eventually settle on a price’. But when she says no, you don’t hear from her again.”
Granovskaia and Chelsea simply walked away when Juventus demanded £70million for Alex Sandro last summer, which – the club acknowledge – did not go entirely to plan.
But there is recognition that Chelsea have remained competitive in the Premier League, while progressing in the Champions League.
Issues remaining from the summer may be addressed in the January transfer window. Chelsea are hunting for a left-back, with Sandro still on their radar, as well as a striker, and they retain a strong interest in midfielder Ross Barkley from Everton.
The success of former Chelsea players such as Kevin De Bruyne, Mohamed Salah and Romelu Lukaku has not prompted any inquests or finger pointing. Chelsea had already started inserting buy-back clauses in deals before De Bruyne.
Abramovich may have sacked Jose Mourinho twice but, with every departure and every change, it becomes ever clearer who he really considers the Special One, and that is Granovskaia.
‘With Marina, when she says no to a deal, she means no and then you don’t hear from her again’