Inter Milan coach Luciano Spalletti has ruled out any big-money transfers by the title-chasing Chinese-owned club in the January transfer market.

Inter are third in Serie A -- seven points behind leaders Napoli -- as they chase a first Serie A title since 2010.

But Spalletti said the club wanted their players to know they were valued and did not want to fall foul of financial fair play restrictions.

"You can say names - (Henrikh) Mkhitaryan, (Javier) Pastore, (Simone) Verdi but they'd cost 30 million euro and we don't have that," said Spalletti, the former Roma coach.

"To keep saying we need to have a big transfer campaign, after the club has made it clear there are certain parameters to be respected, seems to me the best way to get hurt.

"It's not right and it's not respectful. It also seems to me that it reduces the possibility of improving the level of the team, by thinking about new arrivals.

"It's the wrong message for our group, because one player can't change the fate of a team and we can't do big things in this window.

"These players need to know I'm sure of their qualities, they have the potential.

"Opportunity creates the thief, and the transfer market creates the distracted player."

Chinese businessman Zhang Jindong's Suning group paid nearly 270 million euros ($326 million) for Inter Milan in June 2016.

The club finished seventh last season, but under new coach Spalletti made a storming start to the 2017-18 campaign, going unbeaten before back-to-back league losses in December and an exit from the Italian Cup at the hands of city rivals AC Milan.

"We've lost two or three matches where clearly we could have done better, but that can happen," added Spalletti.

Inter face Fiorentina and former Inter coach Stefano Pioli on Friday.