By full time, it was tempting to believe that Napoli’s troubles had all been an illusion. After 24 hours of accusations and legal threats resulting from videos that the club’s TikTok account posted of striker Victor Osimhen, the Partenopei had come back to their home stadium and thrashed Udinese 4-1. The Nigerian played the first hour of the game, scored the second goal and continued to cheer his teammates after being substituted in the second half.

The manager, Rudi Garcia, once insisted during a previous stint at Roma that his team had “put the church back in the centre of the village” with a derby win over Lazio. Asked whether he had repeated that trick on Wednesday night, he reached for a different analogy, saying instead that Osimhen and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia had “set our watch back to the correct time”.

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Those players were the leading stars of a team that won the Serie A title just four months ago, Osimhen finishing as the league’s top scorer and Kvaratskhelia recognised as its most valuable player. That, though, was under a different manager. Luciano Spalletti parted with the club afterward and Garcia, whose only major silverware was a league and cup double at Lille 12 years ago, was an unexpected choice to replace him.

The Frenchman’s tenure got off to an uncertain start. Napoli won their first two league games but took just two points from the next three, losing at home to Lazio before drawing at Genoa and Bologna. Osimhen appeared to chastise Garcia after being subbed in the 86th minute of the latter fixture, with the score at 0-0, gesturing that the team should be chasing the win with two strikers up top.

Sustaining a winning formula created by someone else is a tricky task for any manager. In Garcia’s case, the job has been complicated further by things beyond his control. Osimhen was the subject of interest from clubs in Europe and Saudi Arabia this summer. Napoli dismissed it, yet negotiations to extend a contract that expires in 2025 – and give the player a salary more reflective of his talent – were allowed to grind to a halt.

Then came this week’s social media saga. On Tuesday evening, Osimhen’s agent Roberto Calenda posted to X, formerly Twitter, criticising Napoli for what he described as “a video mocking Victor” on the club’s TikTok account. He noted that it had been “belatedly” deleted but added that he and his client “reserve the right to take legal action and any useful initiative to protect Victor.”

In fact, two TikToks of Osimhen had been posted and then taken down by Napoli. One featured footage from the draw with Bologna, showing the player asking for, getting, and then missing a penalty. A high-pitched voice overlaid his appeals and then dissolved into giggles as the eventual spot kick flew wide. The other video, posted last week, cut images of Osimhen together with a song proclaiming: “I’m a coconut”.

Despite being deleted from the club’s account, these videos gained fresh life as a result of Calenda’s comments, as they were reshared by users across different social media platforms. Many people found them shocking, recognising problematic aspects of comparing a black player who has experienced racist abuse in Serie A stadiums to a tropical fruit, as well as making him look as if he was begging for his penalty in a country where “Vu cumprà”, a phrase born of mocking how African immigrants pronounce “vuoi comprare?” – would you like to buy something? – is still used in some places as a shorthand to describe street vendors.

There was also a counterreaction from fans who did not see the videos in the same light, characterising them instead as, at worst, misguided irreverence. TikTok can feel like a bewildering place to the uninitiated, with its own laws and inscrutable memes. Type “I’m a coconut” into the search bar and you will find plenty more videos like the Napoli-made one of Osimhen, with different people or animals as the subject.

Napoli’s account is targeted at an audience who are already invested in that world. Other players have been teased before Osimhen. There are surreal videos asking fans to choose between Amir Rrahmani or a capybara and saying not to worry about a burst football when you can use Eljif Elmas instead.

In reality, the person whose opinion mattered – and continues to matter – most was the one at the centre of it all. That Osimhen was upset became clear as he removed several photos of himself in a Napoli shirt from his Instagram feed. There was a nervous wait to see if he would have any further reaction ahead of Wednesday night’s game against Udinese.

Eyebrows were raised when a video circulated of him arriving at the team’s hotel before the game but failing to acknowledge his teammates Diego Demme and Piotr Zielinski sat outside. When the team got to the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona, they were greeted by a supporter banner reminding them that: “Beyond every other action, respect for the shirt is the first commandment”.

Yet the crowd also cheered for Osimhen, and Napoli went on to produce their most convincing win under Garcia so far. Zielinski gave them the lead with a penalty in the 19th minute and Osimhen made it 2-0 before half-time. His celebration was less joyous than some we have seen before – he did not remove his mask as he often does – but he ran to hug the substitute Jesper Lindstrøm and seemed to share a moment of unspoken acknowledgment with Garcia.

Better still would come for Napoli in the second half, as Kvaratskhelia, after hitting the woodwork twice, scored his first goal since March. Lazar Samardzic bagged a brilliant consolation for Udinese before the Georgian set up Giovanni Simeone to make it 4-1.

There were more positive notes here for Garcia. The manager wanted Osimhen to take the penalty but the striker deferred to Zielinski and congratulated him afterward, dousing any suggestions of discord between the two after the missed greeting outside the hotel.

“We were all frustrated and angry at not winning in Bologna,” said Garcia afterwards. “That happens. We cleared things up and on a sporting level everything is back to normal. Then you have clumsy moments, nobody wanted to do any harm – neither the TikToks nor Victor with his social media. These are instinctive reactions, and you can understand them.

“I’ve been a manager for almost 30 years. At the start, the pitch was 80% of the job and the non-sporting stuff – the atmosphere, the media – was 20%. Now 80% of it is managing everything that goes on around the football and 20% is what happens on the pitch. If you don’t know that, or don’t like it, go do something else.”

The concern for many Napoli supporters will be that their best striker might still prefer to do his job somewhere different after the events of recent weeks. Garcia would love to believe his team has set its watch back to a more carefree moment. But that is not really how time works.