‘Not a great Italy' - Luciano Spalletti issues damning indictment of national team as departing coach admits they disappointed against Moldova win a day after sacking announcement

The Italy national team parted ways with manager Spalletti after their 3-0 defeat to Norway in the World Cup qualifiers last week, with the 66-year-old departing after their fixture against Moldova on Monday. After the 2-0 victory, Spalletti expressed his views and highlighted the current situation of the national team.

Despite the victory, Italy’s performance didn’t seem convincing of a country that has won the World Cup four times in the past and Spalletti was brutally honest with his assessment of the state of the squad as he heads for the exit.

Spalletti said: "I'm not leaving a great Italy, each of us has a way of thinking and working, a bit of excitement is to be recreated, the Italy shirt must make us vibrate, when you have it on you it must burn if you don't dress it well. We need to be able to find the right attitude again and I am convinced that they will succeed, the boys believed in me and I didn't give them a great hand, but then there were some reasons why I wasn't able to make up for it and probably others wouldn't have been able to do it either."

Italy will look for a new coach before they return to action on September 5, when they take on Estonia in the qualifiers. Claudio Ranieri has turned down the offer to take the job, meaning Stefano Pioli could be next in line.