Chelsea takeover: All bidders 'express wish' for Marina Granovskaia to stay
By Tom Gott
Each of the four bidders vying to buy Chelsea have 'expressed a wish' to keep director Marina Granovskaia should they take over the club.
Granovskaia is a close friend of departing owner Roman Abramovich, having operated as his advisor for the past 18 years and largely being in control of Chelsea's day-to-day business since her promotion in 2014.
Her future has obviously been thrown in doubt by the news that Abramovich will soon leave the club, but according to The Athletic, she will be asked to stay on by whoever wins the race to buy Chelsea.
Todd Boehly, the Ricketts family, Sir Martin Broughton and Stephen Pagliuca have all expressed a desire to keep Granovskaia around and the feeling is that she will be allowed to keep her current director role and the control that comes with that.
As of yet, Granovskaia has not committed to any group and has not made it clear whether she will stay or leave. That decision is expected to come after the winning bidder is chosen, when formal talks will be held.
There have also been questions about the futures of both technical director Petr Cech and chairman Bruce Buck, who work closely alongside Granovskaia.
Buck came under fire from fans after it was revealed that he played a part in arranging the meeting between the Ricketts family and Paul Canoville, Chelsea's first black player, in an attempt to ease concerns over Islamophobic comments previously made by one of the family members, Joe.
The chairman was accused of showing favouritism towards the Ricketts' for organising the meeting with Canoville, who has since met with the other three bidders to discuss their plans to continue Abramovich's work in supporting diversity and equality.