Pizza promised for Edinburgh youth players in return for more wins as coach inspired by Claudio Ranieri at Leicester City

The coach has pledged to take all eighteen boys out for pizza when their number of league wins exceeds the number of losses.

A local youth football coach is following in the footsteps of Claudio Ranieri to turn encouraging performances into deserved results.

John Robertson, a coach of the under-15s team at Corstorphine based Beechwood FC, is making his players a pizza promise.

John has pledged to take all eighteen boys in his squad out for pizza when their number of league wins exceeds the number of losses.

A local youth football coach is following in the footsteps of Claudio Ranieri to turn encouraging performances into deserved results.

The idea came to him as he was writing a match report following an undeserved defeat in a league game, he said: “We had an unsettled summer at the club with players and coaches leaving. But the boys who stayed and the new boys that came in have been working really hard at training.

"You can see performances improving on the pitch but they are not being rewarded with results. I thought making the pizza promise would be a show of faith in them and give them an added incentive to keep working hard and playing well.”

Beechwood are four games into their SERYFA League 2 season. So far, the Edinburgh team have won one and lost three but Mr Robertson hopes to be paying out on his pizza promise before they play their tenth game.

Famously, Ranieri built on a bright start to the 2015/16 English Premier League season by his Leicester team with a promise to treat every player to a pizza when they managed their first clean sheet.

Apparently, pizza had an inspirational effect for the rest of the season. Ranieiri’s pizza purchase powered Leicester to fifteen clean sheets as they became surprise league champions.

John is hoping for a similarly positive pizza effect at Beechwood. However the club is stopping short of offering every player a BMW i8, as Leicester City’s Thai chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha had, if they secure the league title come the end of the season

John is hoping for a similarly positive pizza effect at Beechwood.

Ben McAspurn, a lively Beechwood attacker, said: “We haven’t got the results we wanted so far this season. Now we’re getting more encouragement to go on and win more games, so it’s up to us to push on and get the performances and results we need to get our hands on that pizza.”

Ken Hunter, dad of team captain Finlay, said: “Players leaving and joining over the summer mean the team’s still gelling. They’re improving so I think John’s clever motivational promise is set to take a slice or two out of his bank account.”

The volunteer coach is also hoping his pizza promise will not leave him too much out of pocket. He said: “I also buy doughnuts every time they keep a clean sheet. It will cost a lot to buy pizza for a squad of eighteen hungry teenagers so I’m approaching local restaurants to ask if they can help me out by offering a deal on my pizza promise. Maybe I need to think about a healthy eating policy in the future...”

The team has also started a poll for toppings so that they can request a special, create your own, ‘Beechwood Pizza’, from whoever is kind enough to supply their pizza deal.

Beechwood enjoyed a 5-0 win on Sunday afternoon, however, it was in a cup game, so did not earn the team a slice of the pizza. The boys' quest for wins will carry through the arduous winter period.