Chelsea Targets Set-Piece Coach Austin MacPhee from Aston Villa

Chelsea have opened talks to bring Aston Villa’s highly rated set-piece coach Austin MacPhee to Stamford Bridge, but they are not alone in the chase, with rival Premier League clubs and Saudi Pro League sides also circling.

Villa are entitled to compensation, with MacPhee’s contract understood to include a specific release clause. Any club wanting to prise him away from Villa Park will have to pay to unlock it.

This is not a marginal move for any of the suitors. MacPhee, 46, has quietly become one of the most influential specialists in the European game. Working at Villa Park while also serving in a similar capacity with the Portugal national team for the past five years, he has built a reputation as a coach who turns dead balls into a weapon.

The numbers back it up. During the 2023-24 season, Aston Villa scored more goals from set-pieces than any other side across Europe’s top five leagues, a staggering return for a club that, not long ago, struggled to impose itself on the biggest stage. The following campaign, they stayed among the continent’s elite in that department, finishing joint-top with Arsenal for set-piece goals in the Premier League last season.

That edge has helped fuel Villa’s surge under Unai Emery. MacPhee has been a key figure in a backroom team that delivered the Europa Conference League and pushed the club into the Champions League, a transformation built not just on open-play fluency but on ruthless precision from corners and free-kicks.

Now that success is being picked apart. MacPhee is set to be one of several staff members leaving Villa Park this summer, and his next move has become a subplot of the Premier League’s tactical arms race.

Chelsea’s interest is clear and timely. New head coach Xabi Alonso has room in his backroom staff after Bernardo Cueva, the set-piece specialist recruited from Brentford for £750,000 in 2024, shifted away from a touchline role into a more behind-the-scenes position. The vacancy is obvious. So is the opportunity.

For Chelsea, luring MacPhee would mean importing one of the most productive dead-ball brains in Europe at a moment when marginal gains can decide Champions League qualification, title races, and cup runs. For Aston Villa, it would mean losing a key architect of their recent rise.

The decision now sits with MacPhee and the clubs willing to trigger that release clause. In a league where every detail counts, where will one of football’s most sought-after specialists choose to redraw the lines on his next set-piece playbook?