A surprise decision from the Napoli president before the Lazio match

The timing could hardly be worse. Back-to-back defeats to Juventus and Porto have left the club on edge, and the squad has been locked in a closed camp since Friday. De Laurentiis turned up at Castel Volturno himself, sitting down with Allegri and sporting director Manna to thrash out the reasons behind the slump.

According to Sky Italia, De Laurentiis wanted silence at this crucial moment, freeing the players to focus entirely on training and matches. He cut back his own pre-match remarks too, hoping performances would start to climb.

 This was no punishment. He simply wanted the pitch to do the talking first, with no room for mixed messages. In all likelihood he had not scrapped the press conference minutes before kick-off, but had settled on the stance well in advance, and the club's statement just failed to go out in good time, according to Sky.

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The club president wrote in a message posted on his official account on X: "There is no injury case at Napoli."

De Laurentiis went on: "When I realised that we were about to hold another press conference, I decided to cancel it. Why? Because I don't think press conferences are necessary before matches, especially as we are playing every three days. We are at a training camp, and we must avoid any factors that distract the players from their focus on the match. When the team is at a training camp, everyone must be completely safe."

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