Italy coach Luciano Spalletti assures the reports of a bitter row with ex-Roma captain Francesco Totti were overblown. ‘I was unable to make him understand I always wanted him with me.’
The pair were close initially during Spalletti’s first spell on the Giallorossi bench, but things soured badly in the second tenure at the Stadio Olimpico.
Totti was over 40 and increasingly dropped to the bench, then practically pushed into retirement by Roma not offering him a new contract.
While fans and media at the time openly blamed Spalletti, Totti’s comments to the Corriere dello Sport today suggest he is ready to put all that behind them.
“If I met him, I would greet him with affection. I believe there is a deep bond between us.”
Now the coach of the Italy squad, Spalletti responded favourably to La Repubblica newspaper’s online edition.
“There certainly was a period where I could not make him understand that I would’ve never stopped embracing him. That I always wanted him with me.
“Before the next match at the Stadio Olimpico, I will go to visit some mutual friends we have at the paediatric hospital and that could be a good opportunity to make the visit together.”
Spalletti was also depicted as something of a villain in the television series that was made about Totti’s career and the closing stages, where he was struggling with the idea of having to hang up his boots.