Paulo Sergio: Hearts chiefs betrayed me after 5-1 heroics

Paulo Sergio was back in Scotland promoting the William Hill Scottish Cup

Sergio claimed during that season he was promised a new two or three-year deal, only to find the Tynecastle club wanted to slash his wages.

Adamant the Hampden triumph of 2012 still thrills him to this day and that he still follows Hearts, he said: “The positives always stay stronger in our hearts than the negatives.

“I read a lot in the newspapers and social media about Hearts, I follow the club all the time.

“The cup final win is part of the history, but sometimes a lot of people forget just how tough it was that season with all the difficulties we had in financial terms. For instance, I read people saying that season we only finished fifth in the league but no-one remembers that in December we were third and fighting with Rangers, close to them.

“But then we sold four or five players because we needed the money and afterwards we rebuilt the team with some youngsters coming through and others who hadn’t been playing much until then.

“So in the end we did a fantastic job altogether, finishing with a cup final win.”

At that point, revealed Sergio, he felt his future in Edinburgh was secure. He said: “I did nothing to find another job at that time because I was speaking with the people in the club who had been promising me a renewal of my deal that would allow me to stay for another two or three years. I was very happy about that but in the end, after the cup final, when we all sat around the table they were offering me less than half of what I had been earning before. I almost felt I had been betrayed. I had done nothing to find a new job and we were already at a stage of the year when the best jobs had gone so I could not move on to a better place. I was betrayed by those people.”

• PAULO SERGIO was speaking at a William Hill media event. William Hill is the proud sponsor of the Scottish Cup.