Top Italian TV presenter Ilary Blasi, the wife of AS Roma captain Francesco Totti, has blasted the club's coach Luciano Spalletti as a "little man".
Spalletti has come under heavy fire from Roma fans for giving limiting playing time to club legend Totti, who is in fine form even though he turns 40 on Tuesday.
On Sunday the former Italy forward and 2006 World Cup winner, a born-and-bred Roman who has only ever played for the team he supported as a child, came off the bench to score his 250th Serie A goal in a 3-1 defeat at Torino.
"Soccer decisions are subject to different opinions but you have to accept them," Blasi said in an interview in Monday's edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport.
"But I'd have something to say about the person on a human level. I don't criticise the technical decision but the behaviour and Spalletti has been a little man". Blasi also attacked Roma's American Chairman James Pallotta, who appeared reluctant to give Totti a one-year contract extension last year before his form made it impossible to say no.
"The mind must think before talking," Blasi said, referring to Pallotta reportedly saying that Totti's body no longer does what his mind tells it to.
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