Paulo Sergio has paid tribute to the work he has inherited from Jim Jefferies and revealed his pride that he had been asked to replace him. Sergio becomes Hearts' 11th manager in Vladimir Romanov's near seven-year tenure at Tynecastle. He has been thrown in the deep end as he has to focus his attention on Thursday's Europa League third qualifying round second leg with Hungary's Paks. At least it is at home which gives him the backing of a full house for the game. Sergio said: "I'm very much excited and proud to be at Hearts. I respect a lot the work of Jim, his past, but now the directors have invited me to work at the club. It's an honour for me and I'm going to do all my best to be successful at Tynecastle. I had an ambition to come and work in British football. I'm happy. I don't think that I know everything. I am a humble guy and I sure am going to learn too. I hope to get good results and good football for Hearts."
Sergio, whose six-month spell at Sporting included being knocked out of the Europa League in the last 32 by Rangers in February this year, was in charge of Tuesday's training session with took charge of training on Tuesday morning, with Romanov watching carefully on the sidelines. Sergio then watched a closed-doors game between Hearts and Dunfermline, which was an opportunity for Rudi Skacel and Andrew Driver to gain match fitness.
Sergio is focused on the task of guiding Hearts through this week's Europa League clash and will make only subtle changes to Jefferies' tactics. He said: "I really liked the first contact with the group, with the players, with all the people here working for Hearts. We're not going to change a lot of things the team has been doing (on Thursday). We started working this morning and we're going to try to begin to pass our ideas to the players from the first moment. We know it's an important game for us and we're just thinking about winning the game."