Picture the scene. You’ve just won the Scottish Cup at Hampden, humiliating your oldest and fiercest rivals in the process at the end of a season of turmoil, when the burden of your players even receiving their wages rested upon you lifting the famous old trophy. The pressures and stresses of the last ten months give way to euphoria as the fans chant your name and your players hold you aloft in the centre circle.
Now fast-forward a week. You’re at home, packing your belongings, as the reward for guiding your troubled club to Scottish Cup glory is a contract offer on vastly reduced terms. Sound far-fetched? Perhaps not, when the manager in question is Paulo Sergio, and the club in question is the Vladimir Romanov era Heart of Midlothian.
Just days after leading Hearts to the famous 5-1 victory over capital rivals Hibernian in 2012, the Portuguese coach was forced to turn his back on the club he had grown to love.
He said: “It was very disappointing that I couldn’t stay longer, because I thought for sure that I would be staying for at least one more year.
“After the cup final their people came to me with an offer for less than half the money that I was earning, and I couldn’t stay. I felt at that moment that they were laughing in my face.
“We had lots of time to sort out a new contract, we had lots of meetings, but they never told me what the budget would be for next season or anything like that. Then after the cup final to come to me with an offer like that, I wasn’t prepared for that.
“I stayed one more week in Edinburgh and then I was packing my things. I was preparing for the new season, but it didn’t work out like that.
“I felt very disappointed, and I hadn’t been looking for anything else because in my head I was staying at Hearts. After a moment of such huge joy, it was a big disappointment. Me and my assistants returned home and thought ‘what are we going to do now?’
“I was so focused on my job and what we were going to do next - what players we could bring in, what young players we were going to promote – that I hadn’t spoken to agents or anything about my own future.
“I will always be grateful to the ones who gave me the chance to work at Hearts, but at that moment they didn’t take me seriously."
The 47-year-old is currently without a club after leaving Portuguese side Academica last summer. He was back at Hampden yesterday to relive his most famous day as Hearts coach ahead of taking in Sunday’s Edinburgh derby in the same competition. It was clear that memories of that day almost four years ago were vivid as he surveyed the scene.
"Being at Hampden Park brings back fantastic memories,” he said.
"I had lots of friends and family at the game - my mother, my brother and my wife were at the match.
"My family stayed five days in my house and there was a big party before, during and after the final.
"To be with my mother, my brother and my wife and the people that know me well was what touched me the most. It was very special and it was a great feeling.
"I gave every player a hug after Hearts won the Scottish Cup that day.
"That season was tough as we had the wages problem and guys like Ian Black were painting walls to make ends meet.
"It was a very tough season but we managed to beat Celtic in the semi-final and then Hibs, our biggest city rival, in the final.
"I have some fantastic photos and movies from that day and I still get goosebumps when I watch them. It is a great memory.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here