Italy coach Spalletti knows Napoli fans now suffering; takes aim at De Laurentiis

Italy coach Luciano Spalletti knows Napoli fans are suffering this season.

Spalletti left Napoli at the end of last season after winning the Scudetto.

He told La Gazzetta dello Sport: "I'll tell you an episode that encapsulates everything. I went to watch Milan-Napoli, I was at the bar in the Lounge area: a child who was a Napoli fan 7-8 meters away started staring at me. When the dad gave him permission, he ran to me and clung to my legs: he was crying.

"I picked him up and he was still sobbing. I would have liked to ask dad for his phone number. If he's reading this or someone knows him, I'd really like to talk again with that child who gripped my heart."

Responding to Napoli president Aurelio de Laurentiis that he cost him "100m" by leaving, Spalletti added: "Which of the De Laurentiis spoke? There are 4-5 of them around and I don't understand I'm referring to the children... There's the grateful one, the melancholic one, the resentful one, the behind-the-scenes one. I wish him to reach the Club World Cup which guarantees enormous income, in Napoli's ranking there's also my hand."