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This is Set Piece Menu - the podcast where four friends talk about football over food. They are together a writer, a commentator, a presenter and a pundit. Rory Smith is the Chief Soccer Correspondent of the New York Times, Steven Wyeth commentates for BT Sport and the BBC's Match Of The Day, Hugh Ferris is a presenter at BBC Sport, and Andy Hinchcliffe is a former England international (seven caps) who is now a pundit for Sky Sports. On each episode they discuss one footballing issue, while ...
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The football: It's our last show, live in London (slightly edited for content like movies on ITV in the 1990s, but still self-indulgently long). We're joined by Nedum Onuoha and an audience of well-wishers to send you off into a future without SPM. There are multiple middle class heckles, some essential beepings out of inappropriate words, and by t…
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***Nedum Onuoha will be our guest at the live show in London! He's joining us for our final episode on July 20th. Get your tickets here: https://myticket.co.uk/gigs/set-piece-menu-live-london-2021-12-16-19-00***The football: With the emergence of European clubs and the nations a lot of their players serve, is the dominance of the US Women's Nationa…
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The football: At time of recording, three players key to Ajax's recent success had already left during this transfer window, with potentially at least another three heading out (maybe all to Manchester United) before it's over. Rory is annoyed about the financial and demographic realities that has led to another exodus, and wants to tell us why. St…
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The football: Some Set Piece Menu nostalgia. You miss Andy Hinchcliffe, we do too. So in response to requests to revisit some of his stand out 'Soccer Story' moments, Hugh, Rory and Steven introduce a trip down memory lane. Whether it was crustaceans in the bath at Bellfield, Mrs Big Ron's platter of Kit-Kats or the injury that finally ended an ent…
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The football: 2022 has brought about a notable conscious uncoupling. After 30 beautiful and productive years together the video game partnership between EA Sports and FIFA is ending. How did this happen, why does it matter and whose future looks brighter: the gaming behemoth or the owner of 'the brand'?Plus, a not inconsiderable announcement that w…
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The football: Did Hugh say he'd written a book? Well just in case you missed it, he takes the opportunity of Rory and Steven being distracted by a combination of covid and foreign travel (not both at the same time) to chat with the subject of said book. Nedum Onuoha is a former Manchester City, QPR and Real Salt Lake footballer with a tale to tell …
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Our hiatus-interrupting continues with another new pod, and another reminder to join us for a special SPM LIVE in London on Wednesday 20th July. Get your tickets here: https://myticket.co.uk/gigs/set-piece-menu-live-london-2021-12-16-19-00The football: The end of the Premier League season brings a comforting inevitability, the Hot Takes and Takeawa…
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We're breaking into our hiatus to do two things: 1) be with you for a run of mini-pods to mark the end of the Premier League season and more, and 2) for naked financial gain.The football: It's more than a year since the European Super League came and very quickly went, but it seems all the decisions made by the powers that be since are benefiting t…
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SPM returns from hiatus to consider how the sanctions placed on Roman Abramovich will affect Chelsea, the Premier League, and football's billionaire bubble. We will now politely return to our mini-hibernation, but in the meanwhile if you'd like to send an email, setpiecemenu@gmail.com is permanently open for business.…
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The football: March 2020 was football's hiatus, January 2022 is ours. With changes afoot in the SPM family, and a relaunch expected later in the year, we thought we'd give you all a bit of a break. Consider it an extended deadline if you haven't yet listened to all the episodes, a cheat code for your homework. We will return, and if you have any st…
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The football: Is Serie A the most exciting league in football right now? And if so, does that mean it has at last shaken off its stereotype - one that hasn't been true on the pitch for a long while now - of dull, defensive football? The food: A gingerbread biscuit that Rory couldn't wait until the pod to eat. It was the shape of a bee, which leads …
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The football: As the latest Africa Cup of Nations begins to unfortunate characterisations and complaints about scheduling and availability, we ask if those questioning the relevance of competitions that clash with the Premier League and others in Western Europe are guilty of a little too much navel-gazing.The food: Rory's dog Hector has eaten somet…
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The football: The Premier League likes attracting the best managerial talent, but what if that talent wants to change the Premier League? Thomas Tuchel, Pep Guardiola, Ralf Rangnick and Jurgen Klopp have all spoken about their opposition to how the festive schedule is unduly punitive on their players, but if they wanted the job in England shouldn't…
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The football: Part two of our Set Piece Menu Review of the Year allows us to skew negative, and yet it's a shorter episode. Go figure...The food: Having recorded the pod pre-Christmas, we undertake what has become an annual guessing game about what we ate on the big day, and how much we "enjoyed" it.Email: setpiecemenu@gmail.comMerch: https://www.t…
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The football: We're getting festively reflective as we bring you our Set Piece Menu Review of the Year, which is in no way attempting to sound or feel like another annual retrospective (the one which Rory gets uppity about). We've split it up into two parts, and because it's Christmas, part one prompts us to be nice about things.The food: Hugh is d…
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The football: What's the difference between watching a game on TV and being at the stadium itself? A listener poses the question, and we try not to sound too snobby in our response.The food: Steven is eating a clementine, which prompts Rory to reveal he and his family are lessening their food footprint, which means no more bananas.Email: setpieceme…
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The football: A listener who's relatively new to football wants us to put a little meat on the bones he regularly hears in the coverage of football about 'style', 'identity' and 'philosophy'. What does it all actually mean?The food: Rory has discovered potato latkes and is immediately devastated that it took him this long.The announcement: For reas…
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The football: After Paul Merson wondered whether Ralf Rangnick's lack of experience in English football might make him an inappropriate appointment by Manchester United, we ask if English football has an identity problem. In other words it doesn't really have one, and that's why there's no reason for Rangnick to have experienced it...The food: Stev…
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The football: In the unforeseen absence of two of our number, we fill their places with people who actually know what they're talking about. Peter Drury and Conor McNamara are some of the finest exponents of the art of commentary, and there's also Steven; together we have a conversation about what people don't realise about the life and craft of th…
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The football: The qualification campaign for the 2022 World Cup may well end up delivering familiar countries to the finals, but in getting there has it shown us that international football might have more of something than the best of the club game: jeopardy?The food: Steven has stolen four Viennese Whirls from his partner Katie. Rory, a great lov…
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The football: In front of a live audience at Manchester's National Football Museum, we discuss whether football does a good job of curating its own history. Also includes extras!The food: The live show offers the four of us our first opportunity to eat together since March 2020, until Chinch bails early because he's eaten too many of the hula hoops…
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The football: Is complacency football's greatest leveller? All the talk of complacency from those on the pitch is about how to avoid it, but are those in the boardroom falling prey to it all too often? The food: As we ask you for ideas of what kind of food we could provide our live show audiences, Steve suggests the London show might be a good oppo…
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The football: After the last round of the EFL Cup (yes we were organised enough to make a plan then and save it for this week's round) Pep Guardiola talked of his young Manchester City bucks benefiting more from playing Wycombe every week than taking on someone their own size. We cycle through the possible solutions to the conundrum Pep poses, some…
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The football: After Benjamin White revealed he'd never watched a football game that he wasn't a part of himself, we ask Chinch how a player's relationship with the game can run so counter to what many of us assume, and what many more expect.The food: Chinch is home alone, and without the chef of the family has reduced his diet to crumpets. Only cru…
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The football: Following the Saudi (sorry, PIF) takeover of Newcastle (see SPM175 for more) we talk about how money, and the availability of wealth regardless of its origin, is celebrated more than anything else. Why do we hold financial might in such high regard, when there are so many other things we could be praising more?The food: The Rod Smith …
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