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Francesco Totti says his wife Ilary Blasi was acting out of love for him when she branded Roma coach Luciano Spalletti a "little man" for the way he had treated his club captain last season. Totti turned 40 on Tuesday and insisted Spalletti would be invited to his birthday celebrations, despite his wife's derogatory remarks. "Ilary's words make me understand even more how a woman who loves you absorbs all her own husband's difficulties and internalises them," Totti wrote in a statement on Twitter. "I also realise how much she suffered for my unease last season. "However, today I would like to emphasise that with president [James] Pallotta and coach Spalletti, there is total harmony: I have great respect for the coach and a direct and honest relationship with the president. "We are all pursuing the same objective, which is the good of Roma. Moreover, I have already emphasised this repeatedly. "I will be celebrating my 40th birthday and I will be delighted to do this with my teammates, the coach, my club, my family and the many fans who will be able to follow me on Facebook at 8 [p.m.] responding to the many questions I have received." Meanwhile, former Roma coach Rudi Garcia has said it was an honour to coach the forward. "If he is still playing at the highest level at the age of 40, it means he is a force of nature," Garcia told Mediaset television. "He's been a great professional throughout his career and the thing that struck me first about Totti is his ability to see things before anybody else, but also his technical ability to put into practice what he has seen. "His first touch is fantastic and only he knows how to do it. He's one of the greatest players in the history of football." This is not necessarily reflected in his list of honours and achievements, however, and Garcia believes that if there is one reason Totti may regret staying at Roma all his life, then this lack of success could be it. "If I could have given him anything, it would have been the Champions League," Garcia said. "The beautiful thing about Il Capitano is that he dedicated his whole footballing life to the Giallorossi shirt and Roma. This is an incredible, beautiful thing, but maybe it deprived him of some victories."
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