AS Roma boss Rudi Garcia enjoyed his first season working with Francesco Totti.
The pair will be returning to the Champions League next season.
"It will please me to Coach Totti in the Champions League," Garcia said to L'Equipe. "A player of his talent needs that stage.
"But this coming season, when there are three matches a week, it's a must that we protect him. He is intelligent, positive and only ever thinks of the team. He is very easy to manage.
"There had been a lot of things said to me about him before I arrived at the club, but I closed my ears to them so I could form my own opinion. Now I have made them.
"In France when a player is older than 30, he is classed as old and burnt out. Here that doesn't exist, given that is hasn't applied to players like Maldini, Totti and Zanetti."
