Chelsea Pursues Set-Piece Specialist Austin MacPhee
Chelsea are pushing to lure one of the game’s most coveted specialists to Stamford Bridge, opening talks with Aston Villa’s set-piece mastermind Austin MacPhee – but they are far from alone in the chase.
Premier League rivals and clubs from the Saudi Pro League have also moved into the conversation, turning the pursuit of the 46-year-old Scot into one of the more intriguing backroom battles of the summer.
Chelsea target the dead-ball king
MacPhee is not a fashionable name in the way a star forward or a £100m playmaker might be, yet his fingerprints have been all over one of the most efficient attacking weapons in European football.
Across the 2023-24 season, Aston Villa scored more goals from set-pieces than any other team in Europe’s top five leagues. Corners, free-kicks, rehearsed routines from throw-ins – Villa squeezed points out of all of them. The following campaign they stayed near the summit again, finishing among the top five in Europe for set-piece goals and ending the Premier League season joint-top with Arsenal in that department.
Those numbers do not happen by accident. They happen on the training ground, under a coach who lives in the detail.
MacPhee has been that figure at Villa Park, all while juggling a parallel role on the international stage. For the past five years he has combined his club duties with a set-piece position with the Portugal national team, working under Roberto Martinez. Martinez has since resigned following the World Cup, but MacPhee’s reputation has only hardened.
Release clause and a reshaping Villa
Any club that wants him will have to pay. Villa are due compensation, with MacPhee’s contract understood to contain a defined release clause. It means this is not a simple opportunistic move; someone will have to make a clear, financial statement that they value the art of the dead ball as much as he does.
His departure would be part of a broader reshaping behind the scenes at Villa Park. MacPhee is one of several staff members expected to move on this summer, closing a highly successful chapter under Unai Emery. During his time on Emery’s staff, Villa not only turned set-pieces into a weapon but also lifted the Europa Conference League and secured a place in the Champions League.
For a club that has roared back into Europe’s elite, losing the architect of their set-piece dominance would sting.
Alonso’s Chelsea leave a vacancy
At Chelsea, the timing is deliberate. New head coach Xabi Alonso is still constructing his backroom team and has a clear gap in one crucial area.
Bernardo Cueva, the club’s current set-piece coach, is stepping away from the touchline. Cueva, who arrived from Brentford in 2024 for a fee of £750,000, is moving into a more analytical, behind-the-scenes role rather than remaining as a visible presence on matchdays and in the technical area.
That shift opens the door for a new specialist with a more direct coaching remit. Chelsea want a figure who can own that space, bring authority, and translate hours of planning into decisive moments on a Saturday afternoon. MacPhee, with his track record and dual club-and-country pedigree, fits that profile almost perfectly.
A battle for marginal gains
This is where modern football now spends its money. Not just on strikers and centre-backs, but on the coaches who can turn a corner in the 88th minute into a season-defining goal.
Chelsea see it. So do their Premier League competitors. So do the cash-rich clubs in Saudi Arabia, who have already shown a willingness to invest heavily not only in players but in technical staff.
The numbers tell the story: Villa’s rise, their set-piece supremacy, the trophies and European qualification that followed. The question now is simple – whose badge will Austin MacPhee be wearing when the next corner is whipped in on opening weekend?
