During a typical Roman Abramovich visit to London, he would have no hesitation in picking up the phone to the most powerful woman in football to find out whether or not she had a spare afternoon to help him find a present for a friend.

These days Marina Granovskaia is just as likely to politely tell Chelsea owner Abramovich she does not have time to go shopping or ask one of her own personal assistants to deal with his request for a restaurant reservation.

In fact Granovskaia has less free time than ever, following the sudden departure of Michael Emenalo from his role as technical director, and has assumed even more responsibility at Stamford Bridge.

The 42-year-old’s workload may decrease slightly when Chelsea get round to replacing Emenalo, with either one or two appointments, but Granovskaia’s power has undoubtedly increased.

It is still the case that, ultimately, Abramovich makes all the decisions at Chelsea, but there is only one person who works out of the club that he speaks to on a daily basis.

Over the course of 24 hours, Abramovich may go from discussing Chelsea’s next big-money transfer target with Granovskaia to which young player is impressing in the academy to where he would like to eat on his next visit to London.