Chelsea in talks for Aston Villa set-piece guru Austin MacPhee

Chelsea are in negotiations to hire highly regarded set-piece coach Austin MacPhee from Aston Villa, but face competition from other Premier League and Saudi Pro League clubs. MacPhee, 46, has been instrumental in Villa's set-piece success, scoring more goals from set-pieces than any other team in Europe's top five leagues in 2023-24 and ranking among the top five the following season. He also works with the Portugal national team. Villa would receive compensation due to a release clause in his contract. Chelsea's new manager Xabi Alonso has a vacancy after current set-piece coach Bernardo Cueva moves to a behind-the-scenes role. The news follows Chelsea's £117m signing of Morgan Rogers from Villa, with Alejandro Garnacho moving to Villa on loan.

First published Aug 4, 02:53 PM UTCUpdated Jul 25, 10:09 AM UTC1 reports · 1 sources

Editorial responsibility

Prepared by: WorldAttention Editorial Systems
Human review: No named human review is recorded for this page.
Automated steps: Reports are grouped by semantic similarity and deterministic rules. Language models may assist titles, summaries, translation and cross-source analysis; the page itself is projected from evidence records.
Page status: Current automated evidence projection
Last updated: Jul 25, 10:09 AM UTCEditorial record as of Aug 4, 02:53 PM UTC

How automation and AI are used · Report a correction or rights issue

Wire timeline

currentJul 25, 10:09 AM UTC

Chelsea in talks for Aston Villa set-piece guru Austin MacPhee

Coverage sources

External reporting used to assemble this Story.

Chelsea in talks for Aston Villa set-piece guru Austin MacPheeBBC SportWesternJul 25, 10:09 AM UTC

Follow the context

Chelsea Aston Villa Xabi Alonso Premier League