Chelsea Target Elite Set-Piece Coach Austin MacPhee

Chelsea have opened talks to bring Aston Villa’s highly rated set-piece coach Austin MacPhee to Stamford Bridge, targeting one of the most influential specialists in the Premier League as Xabi Alonso shapes his backroom staff.

They are not alone.

Several Premier League clubs are in the chase, with Saudi Pro League sides also attempting to lure the 46-year-old Scot, turning a move for a dead-ball coach into one of the more fiercely contested subplots of the summer.

Chelsea eye a proven difference-maker

This is not a speculative punt. MacPhee’s work is written clearly across Aston Villa’s recent rise.

Villa scored more goals from set-pieces than any other side in Europe’s top five leagues in the 2023-24 season, a staggering return that turned corners and free-kicks into a weapon rather than a routine. The following campaign, they stayed among the continent’s elite in that department and finished joint-top with Arsenal for set-piece goals in the Premier League last season.

Those numbers explain the scramble. They also explain Chelsea’s interest.

Alonso, still assembling his core staff, has a clear vacancy. Bernardo Cueva, recruited from Brentford in 2024 for £750,000 to sharpen Chelsea’s set plays, is stepping away from a touchline role into a more internal, behind-the-scenes position. The space on the bench is real, and Chelsea want it filled by a coach with a proven track record of extracting points from dead balls.

Villa braced for another key departure

For Aston Villa, MacPhee’s potential exit would be another significant departure in a summer of change.

He has been a constant presence at Villa Park during a period of transformation under Unai Emery, contributing to a Europa Conference League triumph and qualification for the Champions League. Set-pieces have been a defining strand of that story, turning tight games and underpinning Villa’s surge into Europe’s elite.

MacPhee is under contract and Villa are entitled to compensation, with a release clause understood to be written into his deal. Any club wanting him will have to pay to prise him away.

That will not deter the suitors. Not when the margins at the top are this fine and the evidence of his impact is this stark.

A coach in demand

MacPhee’s reputation is not built solely on club football. For the past five years he has combined his Villa role with a similar position on the international stage, working under Roberto Martinez with the Portugal national team until Martinez’s resignation after the World Cup.

That dual workload has only enhanced his standing: a specialist trusted in both the relentless rhythm of the club game and the high-pressure, small-sample environment of international tournaments.

Chelsea see an opportunity. So do others.

The battle for his signature is a reminder of how the sport has shifted. The arms race is no longer just about marquee forwards and commanding centre-backs; it is about the marginal gains that tilt a season. Corners, free-kicks, throw-ins. Training-ground routines that decide Champions League places and titles.

Chelsea have made their move. The question now is whose colours MacPhee will be plotting set-piece routines for when the new season kicks off.