Paulo Sergio wants to stay at Hearts

By BARRY ANDERSON
Published on Friday 27 April 2012 12:00

PAULO SERGIO today spoke passionately about his love for Hearts as he declared a wish to remain at Tynecastle and extend his contract, which expires at the end of the season.

The Portuguese manager is still unclear on whether the Hearts board wants to retain his services for season 2012/13. Europa League qualification is still possible depending on where the club finishes in the Scottish Premier League this year. Sergio has also guided them to the final of the Scottish Cup, where they will meet city rivals Hibs.

Discussions over the manager's future remain ongoing but his affection for Hearts was made clear when he spoke on the matter. "I am speaking about it (his future) every single day," he said.

"I am here, I am living in Edinburgh and I am not going anywhere so every day I speak with the people here. I love the club very much, I love the city, it's a fantastic city. And I believe the fantastic people here are the main reason I feel so well here in Scotland. So at the right moment we will make our decision.

"I want to stay. So at the right moment we will see if that's possible or not. We are speaking about it, I am here every day, I don't do anything other than live a Hearts life. The other times I just eat and sleep.

"I didn't come here for a holiday, I work every single moment I can. I hope we can be happy at the end of this all. For me it is hard to think long-term. I have said I am happy and I am being honest when I say this.

"In football, more than any other aspects of our society, things can change very quickly. Today they are very happy with me – tomorrow they may be very disappointed. We know the way life is in football and if you are not ready for that then you should change your job.

"I am not in football for personal ambitions. I just see my life working with a group and working for the club, doing the best I can for the supporters. Your ambitions and targets can be two different things if you are being honest.

"If you invest a lot of money to create a strong team then you'll fight for different targets than if you create a younger team to look after the future of the club. You can do an honest job with different targets but I see both of those targets as a good challenge.

"That won't affect the decision of whether I stay or not. I always believed our board was doing everything they could to put things in place. But we also have to recognise the efforts of our players because they have believed in themselves as a group and pulled together.

"That allowed us to get the results we have needed to keep people believing in the club. We shouldn't forget that. Reaching the semi-final and the final of the Cup has brought a lot of joy and some money too, which is important to the club at this moment.

"So we have to give credit to our players for what they did and the way they helped our board deal with the problems. I congratulate my players, but it's not finished yet, we need to keep playing. There are still things to achieve and I want us to fight for them.

"Nobody should be disappointed if we finish sixth because it was our target in the hard moments we had to live through. But in the position we are in we are not cowards, we can achieve a better place."

Taken from the Scotsman