Chelsea Pursue Set-Piece Coach Austin MacPhee from Aston Villa
Chelsea have opened talks to lure Aston Villa’s highly rated set-piece coach Austin MacPhee to Stamford Bridge, targeting one of the most influential backroom figures in the Premier League. They are not alone. Rival top-flight clubs and sides from the Saudi Pro League are also circling, turning the pursuit of a specialist coach into a fully fledged transfer battle.
MacPhee, 46, is under contract at Villa Park and cannot move for nothing. Villa are entitled to compensation and his deal is understood to contain a defined release clause, giving suitors a clear price if they want to prise him away from Unai Emery’s operation.
This is not a niche hire. It is an attempt to buy a proven edge.
The architect of Villa’s dead-ball dominance
Over the past two seasons, Villa have turned set-pieces into a weapon as sharp as any striker’s finishing. In 2023-24 they scored more goals from dead-ball situations than any other side across Europe’s top five leagues, an extraordinary return for a team still re-establishing itself among the elite.
They backed that up the following campaign. Villa again ranked among the top five in Europe for set-piece goals and finished joint-top with Arsenal in the Premier League last season. Corners and free-kicks were not just a threat; they were a defining part of their identity.
MacPhee has been at the heart of that shift. His work at club level has run in parallel with an international role. For the past five years he has combined his Villa duties with a set-piece position in the Portugal national-team set-up under Roberto Martinez, who stepped down after the World Cup. The dual workload underlines how highly regarded he is within the coaching community.
Villa’s summer of change
If he goes, MacPhee will be one of several key staff members heading for the exit at Villa Park this summer. The timing is striking. Villa have just won the Europa Conference League and clinched Champions League qualification under Emery, yet the coaching group that helped build that success is beginning to fragment.
The club now face the challenge of defending their place among Europe’s elite while reshaping the structure behind the scenes. Losing the man who masterminded their set-piece supremacy would cut deep, not just tactically but culturally, given how central those routines have become to Emery’s game plans.
Alonso reshapes Chelsea’s backroom
For Chelsea, the move is part of a broader reset under new manager Xabi Alonso. The Spaniard has room to manoeuvre in his backroom team, particularly in the specialist roles that increasingly decide tight games.
Bernardo Cueva, the club’s existing set-piece coach, is stepping away from a touchline position to take on a more internal, behind-the-scenes brief. That shift has created a clear vacancy for a front-line set-piece leader, and MacPhee fits the profile: experienced, innovative, battle-tested in the Premier League.
Chelsea’s interest in Villa assets has already been made clear this week. They completed a headline-grabbing deal for Morgan Rogers, paying £117m for the forward, with Alejandro Garnacho moving to Villa on an initial loan that is expected to become permanent via an option to buy. Now they are pushing to take a key member of Emery’s staff as well.
The transfer market is no longer just about players. It is about marginal gains, details, and the specialists who turn those details into points. Chelsea have decided that set-pieces are too important to leave to chance. The question now is whether Villa – and their rivals in England and Saudi Arabia – are prepared to let one of the game’s most sought-after dead-ball minds walk into Stamford Bridge.
