Todd Boehly takes a new broom to Chelsea’s corridors of power

While national rail strikes are ensuring the arrivals and departure boards in train stations the length and breadth of the UK are sitting dormant for long periods this week, their equivalents at Stamford Bridge could scarcely have been busier over the past couple of days. With the Roman Abramovich era well and truly over following the imposition of sanctions on the Russian oligarch, the consortium led by USA! USA!! USA!!! investor Todd Boehly have taken a new broom to the corridors of power at Chelsea and begun sweeping like Trigger from Only Fools and Horses after an overdose of amphetamines.

Following the news that Bruce Buck would be stepping down from his role as chairman but remaining in situ as an advisor to the new owners, it has now been confirmed that Chelsea director Marina Granovskaia will be following Buck through the door marked “Do One”. The one-time personal assistant to Abramovich during his days as an up-and-coming oil-igarch at Sibneft, Granovskaia is believed to have known even less than The Fiver about football when she took up her role at Chelsea. However, the University of Moscow graduate quickly built a reputation as a sort of anti-Ed Woodward – a fiercely private and seriously shrewd boardroom cookie, who Chelsea’s new owners may find tremendously difficult to replace.

Luckily for them, Granovskaia has agreed to “remain available” to provide advice for the duration of the current transfer window, just in case Boehly and his associates decide they want to spaff £97.5m on a world class centre-forward with a view to loaning him back to whatever club they bought him from within a year. Luckily for them, the purchase of Romelu Lukaku from Inter last season is one of very few conspicuous blots on