MILANELLO – Adriano Galliani has arrived at Milanello and wished Sinisa Mihajlovic a happy birthday. A reminder that the coach turns 47 today.

Afterwards, Galliani and Mihajlovic posed for a photo next to the cake made by Francesco Manico for Silvio Berlusconi’s 30th anniversary since purchasing the club. The message on the cake reads “30 years, believing is winning.”

During the Berlusconi presidency, the Rossoneri have won 5 European Cups, like Barcelona. Real Madrid have won 4 while Italian outfits Inter and Juventus 1 each.

MILAN – Alex has spoken to Corriere dello Sport ahead of Monday night’s Serie A match with Napoli. Here are the salient points from the defender’s interview with the Italian sports-daily:

Opening comments on the last meeting between the two teams: “It was hard for us to forget about that night. The result was tough to take and what’s more it came at the San Siro. We now have to send a message to the others in the league that we are a different team to that night.”

On Napoli’s danger-man Gonzalo Higuain: “At the moment, he is one of the best forwards in the world. He can make the difference in any moment of the match. He has the same personality and charisma as Ibrahimovic. Higuain is unpredictable and very quick. You need at least two players to try and stop him. But we will also have to keep a close eye on Insigne and Callejon. We have worked on this, trying to be effective in stopping their attack. If we want to finish third, we also need to be performing well in defence.”

Closing comments on the President and Mihajlovic: “We want to win as a present for the President’s 30th anniversary at the club. He deserves it for everything that he has done for the club over the years. We will put in a great performance to win. Mihajlovic is certainly the toughest coach I have worked with. He tells you to your face what he has to say. He doesn’t hold anything back. There is a lot of dialogue between us and the coach. I like it this way. We need to be more consistent in Serie A. We have dropped too many points against the so called ‘smaller sides’. If you want to win the league, you cannot afford to do this.”

MILAN – Arrigo Sacchi is the latest figure to have his say on President Silvio Berlusconi who celebrates 30 years at the Milan helm today. These were the comments from Sacchi in today’s edition of the Italian daily “Il Giornale”:

“Silvio Berlusconi represented the true rebirth. Just think about the number of European finals between the late 80s and early 90s featuring Italian clubs. It isn’t just by chance that Italian football enjoyed its best period since the post-war period with the arrival of Berlusconi. He was an incredible innovator. Chicco Evani once said something that sums him up to a tee: the president was so far ahead, that if he turned around, he would be in the future! In our first meeting at Arcore, we spoke about football until midnight and when I left, I had this feeling that I had always known him. When he chose me, taking a big risk, I said to my family: he’s either crazy or a genius. Why was I seen as a risk? That’s easy: he took me from Parma, in Serie B, simply because he saw my team play well against Liedholm’s Milan in the Italian Cup. He was an innovator but much more, he was able to wipe out the dogma in Italian football of winning at all costs, and introduce a much more rewarding and demanding philosophy: win convincingly and entertain. He understood that through great football and respect for opponents, the victory would mean much more.”