Wednesday, 10th August, 2011
Former Roma coach Claudio Ranieri has lifted the lid on his relationship with Giallorossi icon Francesco Totti, dubbing the forward "lazy".
Totti holds great power at the Serie A giants due to his status with the club’s fans and Ranieri, who bossed Roma for 18 months before resigning last season, often opted to leave the Italy star on the bench.
Yet despite Ranieri’s words, the Italian also singled out Totti as the most talented player he has ever coached, just ahead of Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Juventus’ Alessandro Del Piero.
"Sometimes Totti is not training as much as he should have during the week", said Ranieri.
"And therefore I left him on the bench during matches on a Sunday."
The coach is clear on Totti’s quality though.
"He is the best. I’ve trained Lampard and Del Piero. The first was devoted to training, making a real sacrifice. The second was taking sessions after training and encouraged his team-mates to do the same, to work on set-pieces.
"Totti in contrast returned directly home."
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