{"id":783442,"date":"2026-07-25T09:01:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:01:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783442\/"},"modified":"2026-07-25T09:01:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-25T09:01:12","slug":"chelsea-set-to-appoint-a-new-set-piece-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/783442\/","title":{"rendered":"Chelsea set to appoint a new set piece coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Earlier this week, there was a story in the Daily Mail<\/a> about oft-maligned (at least in the public eye) Bernardo Cueva changing roles at Chelsea, moving from his set-piece coaching position that he\u2019s held for the last two years (and countless head coaches), to \u201cone more behind the scenes and away from the pitch\u201d. The Mail\u2019s sources \u201cstressed\u201d that this was \u201cnot a demotion\u201d and that Cueva would \u201ccontinue to play a highly crucial role within their football operation\u201d. Just, you know, not in the role for which he was hired.<\/p>\n

So, basically, Cueva was promoted to get him off of Xabi Alonso\u2019s coaching staff, just like when Herbert Sobel was promoted<\/a> to captain so that Easy Company didn\u2019t have to deal with him<\/a> during actual combat. I\u2019m sure Mauricio Pochettino is quietly nodding his head somewhere in a lemon tree orchard.<\/p>\n

But in the year 2026, football teams do need a set piece coach, so who\u2019s going to be replacing Cueva? The answer to that is, evidently, Aston Villa\u2019s (and the Portugal national team\u2019s) Austin McPhee, whose release clause was reportedly activated by Chelsea yesterday. Yes, set piece coaches have release clauses now, because modern football!<\/p>\n

According to The Athletic<\/a>, McPhee\u2019s looking for a new challenge after five years at Villa \u2014 where he\u2019s earned a bit of a reputation for executing on dead balls<\/a> \u2014 and he\u2019s chosen Chelsea over other interest from the Premier League as well as the Saudi Pro League. And we can certainly provide a good challenge in this regard! As per the report, Villa have scored 74 set piece goals in the last three years, including 29 across all competitions last season, matching the total that Set Piece FC have managed on their way to the Premier League title.<\/p>\n

I guess if we can\u2019t beat them, we might as well join them. The beautiful game!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Earlier this week, there was a story in the Daily Mail about oft-maligned (at least in the public…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":783443,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[474,403,99],"class_list":["post-783442","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-chelsea-fc-transfer-rumours-news","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783442","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=783442"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/783442\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/783443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=783442"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=783442"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=783442"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}