Marina, the woman behind Chelsea’s players trading success

LONDON: She is now the most powerful woman in English football – and responsible for Chelsea's dramatic change of fortunes in the transfer market.

Roman Abramovich's “right hand woman” is Marina Granovskaia.

He has trusted her implicitly for the past 17 years and she has now become one of the most influential figures behind the scenes at Stamford Bridge, negotiating deals and helping the Blues to another successful transfer window.

They sold Andre Schurrle and Ryan Bertrand and bought Juan Cuandrado on deadline day to earn a tidy profit of £6m.

And that comes after last year's brilliant dealing which saw them bring in Diego Costa and Cesc Fabegras and move on David Luiz and Juan Mata.

Despite the club spending £123.3m over the last two seasons, they have made £127.7m from player departures with Granovskaia heavily involved.

The 39-year-old is listed as one of Chelsea's three directors on their official website.

One club source described her as “Tough, fair, beautiful and absolutely brilliant at her job.”

She has always been heavily involved in the financial running of the club.

But since the departure of former CEO Ron Gourlay she has taken on an even more active role alongside chairman Bruce Buck.

Her biography on the Chelsea website reads: “She graduated in 1997 from Moscow State University with honours and the same year started her career at Sibneft, the oil company formerly owned by Roman Abramovich.

“She has worked closely with Mr Abramovich as a senior adviser over the last 17 years, looking after his various assets and interests."

She moved from the Russian capital to London shortly after the acquisition of Chelsea Football Club in 2003 and since 2010 has acted as a representative of the owner at the club and in support of the board of directors.

“She joined the board of Chelsea FC plc and the Football Club Board in June 2013.”