Juventus' general manager Giuseppe Marotta has branded Napoli president Aurelio De Laurentiis "a joker", saying that his recent remarks come from his film producer background and that they are not going to get to the Bianconeri.
De Laurentiis told La Gazzetta dello Sport that Juve "belong to Italy's most powerful family for 100 years" and that this can "silently condition" relationships in their favour, putting them at an advantage over their rivals.
His words come after Napoli coach Maurizio Sarri claimed the Bianconeri are being favoured by the current fixture list, as the two rivals fight it out for the Scudetto, but Marotta says the mind games will not get to his club.
"We're totally relaxed about it," he told Mediaset. "We know that these are just traps we have to deal with every year. What others say about us doesn't get to us, in fact they give us even more motivation.
"If I have to be ironic about De Laurentiis, I would have to call him, as a great man of cinema, a joker. If I am to be serious, on the other hand, I would coin a phrase from the German philosopher Schopenhauer, who said that when they are talking about you, you need realise not what you are, but what others are. I think that says it all."
Marotta is not the only person taking De Laurentiis' words with a pinch of salt, with Sarri also saying he has no intention of meeting his president on Friday, as he had suggested in La Gazzetta, to discuss a new contract.
"I'm not available for a meeting on Friday because we're playing on Saturday and I'll be with the team in preparation," he told Mediaset. "Somebody else will have to go on my behalf and hear what he has to say because I just want to focus on other things right now.
"Having said that, there's not much need for me and De Laurentiis to meet often."
Sarri is contracted to the Azzurri until 2019, although his current deal is reported to include a clause which would allow another club to appoint him in 2018 for a fee of €7.5 million. It is understood that De Laurentiis wishes to eliminate that clause amid rumoured interest in his coach from Chelsea.
Napoli are currently one point clear of Juventus at the top of Serie A, with the two sides expected to fight it out between themselves for the title this season, with a gap of 13 points down to third-placed Lazio.