Report of Allegri outburst after Lazio draw comes with his job in doubt

A story is going round about what happened after Napoli-Lazio, in the atrium leading to the dressing rooms once the match was over. According to the story, Allegri shouted the same line three times: "I am the strongest of all, you just have to get me the players."

What the story says

The account adds some detail. The scene supposedly took place in the atrium, not the dressing room, with several people present. Three Napoli players were among them, and a couple of those had been neither on the pitch nor on the bench.

Who the line was meant for is not clear. It was not De Laurentiis, who according to the account was already in the dressing rooms. Some think it could have been about Manna. Many others think it was Allegri talking to himself out loud, about himself.

The source says several people who were there passed the words on, and puts the number of possible witnesses at 10-15. They describe it as an outburst, and say something similar happened around the match against Roma.

«Io sono il più forte di tutti, mi devi solo prendere i giocatori»

Why the timing matters

The real issue is when this has come out. Napoli are tenth with 15 points after 11 matches. They are 14 points behind Lazio and 9 off fourth place, which is the target Allegri set himself.

The 1-1 on Sunday 8 November came from a Pedraza own goal, after Napoli had six shots on target and every one was saved. At the final whistle the Maradona turned on the team.

On Friday 6 November De Laurentiis spent an hour at Castel Volturno (the training ground) with Allegri and Manna. He backed both of them and promised signings in January, but he also asked for an immediate turnaround.

If the line is genuine, we would read it as a message about the transfer window rather than about the football. But that is exactly the part we cannot interpret, because no one says who it was aimed at.

What we can say

We have nothing that shows it happened this way, and we are not saying it did. What we will say is that a rumour like this finds fertile ground after three games without a win and a training retreat that many players did not like.

Allegri's best answer would not be a denial. It would be the match against Torino on Saturday 21 November at 20:45 CET (19:45 UK, 14:45 ET) at the Maradona.