Chelsea ‘draw up’ four-man sporting director shortlist to replace Granovskaia

Chelsea are currently on the hunt for a new sporting director following the imminent departure of Marina Granovskaia and reports suggest that there are four candidates on the club’s shortlist

Former Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Brazil left-back Maxwell is reportedly on a four-man shortlist to replace Marina Granovskaia as Chelsea ’s sporting director.

Granovskaia, who had first become the club’s chief executive in 2014, departed the club officially earlier this month following the sale of the club to American Todd Boehly by Roman Abramovich, with chairman Bruce Buck and technical and performance advisor Petr Cech also announcing their exits in recent days.

Reports have claimed that the Blues have drawn up a four-man shortlist of candidates to replace the Russian-Canadian 47-year-old in the role and the Maxwell’s name is believed to be one that is on the club’s wishlist.

The Guardian have claimed that there is a shortlist of between three and four candidates that include 40-year-old Maxwell, who has served as PSG’s sporting director for the last five years.

During Maxwell’s time in the role, his list of transfer acquisitions has included Lionel Messi, Kylian Mbappe and Achraf Hakimi, with Maxwell retiring as a player while at PSG in the same year he started his current role.

The 10-time Brazil international is not alone however in the list of potential candidates to replace the highly-successful, with former Liverpool negotiator Michael Edwards also set to be liked by Boehly and the Chelsea hierarchy.

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While working at Anfield as the club’s sporting director, Edwards helped the club to sign the likes of Mohammed Salah, Virgil van Dijk, Sadio Mane, Alisson and Andrew Robertson. The Sun however claim that Manchester United, Newcastle United, PSG and Real Madrid are all also keen on Edwards following his Liverpool departure.

As well as wholesale changes off the pitch, it is set to be an important summer on the pitch for Chelsea, who have had a number of big name exits this summer.

Centre-backs Antonio Rudiger and Andreas Christensen both headed up the list of departures following the expirations of their contracts and while Christensen is set to join Barcelona, Rudiger’s free transfer to Real Madrid has already been confirmed.

There are also expected to be exits for players currently in contract at Stamford Bridge. Captain Cesar Azpilicueta and fellow Spanish defender Marcos Alonso have like Christensen been heavily linked with interest from Barcelona.

Romelu Lukaku is also set to head back to former club Inter Milan on a one-year deal after a poor first season in his second spell at Chelsea following a £97.5m move last month.

Man United’s Cristiano Ronaldo and Manchester City winger Raheem Sterling are among the names recently linked with transfer interest this summer from Thomas Tuchel’s side.