Chelsea have been handed a major blow in their mission to narrow the gap with runaway Premier League title contenders Manchester City and Liverpool. Since the the American-led consortium took ownership of the west London club, Todd Boehly has been a driving force in ensuring that Thomas Tuchel's ambitions are funded.
Under Roman Abramovich, across two full transfer windows, the Blues boss was gifted just three new faces. Of whom, one - Romelu Lukaku - was considered as a first-team staple, another - Saul Niguez - being a deadline day emergency loanee and the other - Marcus Bettinelli - a third-string goalkeeper.
While the lack of arrivals under Tuchel, despite his great success, was one problem, deciding where to allocate funding was another and Boehly has looked to solve this with the appointment of a sporting director. Chelsea are said to be in the market for a transfer guru having failed to fill the position left by Michael Emenalo in 2017; Marina Granovskaia, who left her position at Stamford Bridge as a director this summer, managed negotiations oppose to leading talent identification.
