By Anna Italia
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AC Milan making the official presentation of new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic on Friday 3 July 2015 in Casa Milan. The press conference at 10:30 a.m. AC Milan president Silvio Berlusconi making the presentation and club’s CEO Adriano Galliani optimistic with Mihajlovic.
Mihajlovic, the former Sampdoria coach was appointed new coach of the rossoneri on June 16th and has signed a two year deal. Mihajlovic replacing coach Filippo Inzaghi.
Click the video to watch AC Milan Press Conference for the Official presentation of new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.
Here are the declarations of AC Milan President Silvio Berlusconi and new coach Sinisa Mihajlovic.
Berlusconi: “I personally believe last season Milan were missing their real way of playing, the way Milan have always known how to play, rather than playing good football and taking control of the game, which is how Milan have always played. We always had a lot of faith in the players, we had collected a group of players upfront that were reliable and very good. A lot of money was spent last season in the transfer market. This season we decided to strengthen the attack again. We looked at Martinez, but believed the price was too high, so we decided to look elsewhere. We were able to wrap up the deal with Carlos Bacca. We also needed another striker and that was Luiz Adriano. We’ve been following him for a long time. He is a striker that has always scored plenty of goals. We are very happy to have concluded the deal. Initially we thought he would arrive in January and then we made another economic sacrifice to make him join earlier. Bertolacci is another player that we have signed. Roma initially wanted to keep him thanks to his performances last season, but in the end, we managed to convince Roma to sell him. There are other players. Gabriel is back from his spell at Carpi. Rodrigo Ely is also back from Avellino. Niang is back from Genoa along with Matri from Juventus.
This is the group of new players that at the moment we have made available to the new coach. We would like to thank Rami, Bocchetti and all the players that spent time here. Rami is going to Sevilla. Muntari is leaving as well after a few years. Essien, Van Ginkel, Pazzini and Destro are also leaving. So, we are now handing over to Mihajlovic a list of 30 players, probably 31, with 1 to come. We now must reduce the squad to 25. Some will leave and some will be let go. We have 5 goalkeepers and that is one too many. We are counting on Diego Lopez, Gabriel is back because we believe he is one for the future and Donnarumma, who everyone speaks highly of. We hope to reduce the squad to 25 and then some players, 7 to be precise, who could be added but are too young to be classed as first team like Mastour, Gori, Calabria, Cutrone. These are all young prospects. I only have to add all the best to Mihajlovic and hopefully he will be able to work in the best of ways. He has everything to take Milan back to the glory years. Football is made up of cycles. It is made up of good moments and bad moments. Now we hope to go back to the good times and back in the Champions League positions. I want to say a couple of words on the Milan brand, especially abroad. We are trying to grow in the Asian market. We have more than 340 million fans around the world. China is a huge market for us. China has a government scheme to take football to the schools. It is a market that is ready to receive our brand. Taechaubol has presented plans to take the Milan brand to Asia. From this commercialisation, we could grow in terms of revenue and try to compete with the big European clubs. As we all know, the Arab states have come into the game and brought in a lot of money and it is hard to compete with this. So, I don’t think one family alone can compete with this kind of investment. It has been a huge effort on my part to become successful and Milan have become the most successful club in the world. We go into this new season with lots of confidence. Going back to Mihajlovic, there are lots of new players coming in. It won’t be easy to manage that, but I think he is the right man for the job. I have also planned to visit Milanello today. Mihajlovic has promised that he will be at Milanello early in the morning to late in the day! From my point of view, I love football. I only read Milan articles and the national team. I don’t want to judge other clubs.”
Galliani: “This is the start of the 30th season with the president. When he speaks I don’t think there is anything else to say.”
Mihajlovic: “It’s a great honour to be here. This is a very special first day for me. The atmosphere here is very important. Now that I am here, I feel it even more so. I would like to thank the president and Galliani for choosing me. This is a club that has an enormous history. I am not part of the Milan history, so I thank the club for the faith in me. It has been a couple of difficult seasons for Milan and I want to take them back to the top. The club are working very hard on the transfer market. The president is doing everything he can to give me everything I ask for. There isn’t another ambitious project as this in Italy right now. You have to aim high, but the name is not enough. You have to respect it. I just want to say in the era of the president, there have been coaches appointed with a Milan past like Ancelotti, Capello, but also from outside such as Allegri, Zaccheroni, Sacchi, who changed football. The only way I can win over the fans is hard work. Milan have always been a side to be feared and I want that Milan side back. I want my Milan team to instil fear in other teams. We will be like our motto, a team of devils, red like fire and black like the fear we will instil into our opponents. I am convinced that we can achieve good things this season.”
Berlusconi: “I have always been an optimist, but I have also understood thanks to my experiences, what certain pessimists are like. Let’s remain optimistic. Everything is in place to do well this season. We have lots of confidence. Ibra? Galliani will answer that. If he comes, we’ll have him! He’s a great player and he would do well in any team. As for my last 30 years, everyone sets goals, I’ve always set very ambitious ones. They were so ambitious that when I told other people, they would sometimes doubt they would be possible! I have opened up to other investors to take 48% of the club so we can go back to being as competitive as we used to be and open up new markets in Asia. Another great moment could be on the horizon.”
Mihajlovic: “Goals? As I said, we have to win one game after another and then we shall see where we are heading. Tactics? There is no one formation that makes you win or lose games. We have to see what players we have available and get the best out of them. We have brought in 2 great forwards. Playing with 2 strikers there aren’t many formations that we can revert to. A 4-3-1-2 is probably the formation that suits us best at the moment, that is the starting point and then we will go from there. We will have time to evaluate and change.”
More from Mihajlovic: “There are many quality players, Italian players, young. When you have quality players, there aren’t problems, as they know how to play football, you can adapt and play them in different roles. El Shaarawy I see on the flank, but maybe we will test him as an internal midfielder. Cerci is another winger, but could also play in attack. Bonaventura plays better as one of the 3 midfielders or behind the front two. Menez can also play behind the strikers, but it depends on the opposition and whether you have to be more offensive or defensive.”
Berlusconi: “You all know about our love for the San Siro. It has been the home of epic wins. It’s a stadium where you get a good view of the match, for instance there is no running track. It has been great over the years. Football has changed. All games are shown on TV. The number of spectators has reduced and all the big teams have their own stadiums. These big clubs have been able to make between 50-80 million euros from their stadiums a season. They are entertainment and leisure centres too. They are multi purpose. Where we plan to build, we are close to the underground lines, it will be easy to reach. For a couple of years while we are building, there may be a bit of disruption, but once it is completed it will be a bonus to the area. That’s the vision. I think Milan have to get with the times. We are waiting for a reply from the Fondazione Fiera. We think it will be accepted. As for the finances, we wil reflect on that when the time is right. We have 10 offers from investment funds that have offered to finance the stadium. All the specifics will have to be evaluated and decided upon if we get the final go ahead. Taechaubol? The fact that China is such a big market for us convinced me. Mihajlovic? First of all, he is a great character and I am sure that he will teach our players how to take free-kicks properly! He has character and showed that at Sampdoria last season. He has also shown that he studies the opponents very well, which is important nowadays. Weighing up many alternatives, we were convinced he was the best choice.”
Mihajlovic: “I am not afraid of exchanging ideas with anyone. The President is the best person to explain what Milan means and what Milan is all about. It is a privilege for me to talk about football with him and exchange opinions. But that will remain between us.”
Berlusconi: “I expect more from every player. There are some excellent players in the squad now. I have my formation in mind that I would like to see. With the arrival of Mihajlovic, a lot of players can improve. I am a huge fan of Menez, and if he is used in the right way, he can be phenomenal. Even last season he did very well and scored a lot of goals. Scudetto? Absolutely yes. We know we have excellent foundations and we will try and do our very best. I think we can, with the team that we have available, compete for top honours. Once again many, many thanks and I hope to see you again with our goals and objectives being reached.”