Thomas Tuchel speaks about club director Marina Granovskaia and her possible departure ahead of a change in Chelsea ownership
Speaking to the media ahead of their Premier League clash against Burnley, as quoted by Football.London, Chelsea manager Thomas Tuchel has revealed that he’d prefer club director Marina Granovskaia to stay on in her role despite the impending change in ownership of the club.
Roman Abramovich’s 19-year reign as the owner of Chelsea is coming to an end after the Russian announced that the club was up for sale recently. While Abramovich has been at top of the hierarchy throughout his time at Chelsea, he preferred to hand over the responsibilities of making club-related decisions to Marina Granovskaia, his board, and more recently, Peter Cech.
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Granovskaia was named ‘best club director’ by Tuttosport in 2021, in a season when Chelsea signed Timo Werner, Kai Havertz, Ben Chilwell, Hakim Ziyech, Eduardo Mendy and Thiago Silva, appointed Tuchel as their manager mid-season and proceeded to win the Champions League. The Russian business executive, along with the board, played a key role in both the signings of the players and the manager that season.
Marina on the way out?
Now, with Abramovich’s reign coming to an end, there have been rumours that Granovskaia could also follow him on the way out. Speaking about the situation, Tuchel admitted that although there is uncertainty, he hopes that the current club director would stay on.
“My communication with Marina and Petr is excellent from day one. Marina is ill at the moment, otherwise she would have been here and briefed everybody.”
Although the German manager was very clear that he would like the club director to stay on, he did confess that if Marina was to leave, the club will have to adapt.
“I hope it stays on the same level, hopefully with the same person. If not, okay, we need to adapt. It seems we have to adapt on a daily basis to new situations.”
Finding a replacement for someone who has achieved as much as Granovskaia is difficult, for it could be a tough task for anyone coming in to fill in her shoes from the get-go. The Blues director has done so much for the club in the past decade and has rightly been called the most powerful woman in football.
There is a lot of uncertainty at Chelsea at the moment and Marina leaving would just make it even more difficult for the club. From Tuchel’s point of view, he may have to adapt to a lot of new things this summer, with a potential change in ownership that could see a change in the backroom staff to a certain extent, as well as a possible defensive exodus once this season halts.
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It is natural to assume that if Chelsea end up losing the likes of Antonio Rudiger, Andreas Christensen, and club captain Cesar Azpilicueta, then we may have to bring in new faces. And once that requirement arises, a strong negotiator amongst our ranks could be the difference between signing a player, or missing out on them.
Regardless of what happens to Granovskaia’s time at Chelsea from here on, there is no denying the fact that she has been the cornerstone of one of the most successful reigns ever in English football. Like Tuchel, we all hope Granovskaia could stay. If not, we will adapt.
