Training-ground fights and an absent De Laurentiis unsettle Napoli

The draw in Florence left more than a point in mid-table behind it. Tension had already been building inside Castel Volturno (the training ground) in the weeks before, and it spilled into two fights between players during training sessions — episodes that point to a dressing room more on edge than the league table alone suggests.

Feeding the unease is an injury crisis that Allegri has had to handle largely on his own. Aurelio De Laurentiis skipped all three home games against Como, Arsenal and Bologna at the Maradona, leaving the coach to front up for a squad stripped by absences — eight players were missing for the trip to Florence alone — and a group growing increasingly tense.

Allegri let his frustration show again after the draw at the Franchi. He felt he had a right to be aggrieved: he had accepted a transfer window that closed without reinforcements, taking the squad at its word that it was hungry and eager to put things right. Five matchdays on, that hunger still is not showing up in the points, and the president stayed away at the very moment the team most needed to feel him close.

In public, on Dazn's microphones, Allegri's anger had already shown itself in its own way at full time.

"We're leaving here angry, balls lost in the last minute and a half"

It now turns out the tension was not only about what was seen on the pitch — it had already been building in training at Castel Volturno.

Napoli are ninth on 7 points after five matchdays, their worst start in ten years, and go into the international break with the fullest treatment room of the season and a dressing room that needs holding together more than picking. The next official fixture is 10 October, when Frosinone visit the Maradona; before then Allegri has two friendlies and two weeks to work out whether the Castel Volturno fights were an isolated incident or a sign of something deeper.