Exposed Boehly can make Tuchel as powerful as Guardiola and Klopp

As recently as a week ago Marina Granovskaia was telling figures inside football that she had not decided whether to continue working for Chelsea’s new owners. Granovskaia was as active as ever in discussions with agents about potential signings and, despite the director’s long-standing ties to Roman Abramovich, there was a feeling that any announcement about her future would be unlikely until the transfer window was over.

That all changed on Monday morning. First came the announcement that Bruce Buck, another associate of Abramovich, had agreed to step down as chairman. Then, in a development that caught a fair few people by surprise, it emerged that Granovskaia would indeed be the next high-profile departure. Ties with the previous regime were being cut and, though there were initially suggestions that Granovskaia would keep her job until the end of August, by the end of the day several sources were tipping her to be gone before the end of the week.

After all, why stick round? When Internazionale opened talks over signing Romelu Lukaku on loan last week, it was Todd Boehly leading negotiations on Chelsea’s behalf. Boehly, Chelsea’s new co-controlling owner, has been hands-on since his consortium’s takeover and, in a noticeable shift in how business was often done on Granovskaia’s watch, the American moved quickly in discussions with Inter, with an agreement over the terms of Lukaku’s loan reached on Tuesday evening.

There was no attempt at a face-saving exercise. Granovskaia, not Boehly, was responsible for spending £97.5m on Lukaku last summer. The logic was simple: Lukaku wanted out after a disastrous season and Thomas Tuchel was never going to stand in the striker’s way, so Boehly backed his head coach and did a