Sergio fears pay delays at Hearts a distraction as Rangers clash looms

Hearts manager Paulo Sergio has insisted his players should not have to accept as inevitable the late payment of their salaries and confessed he is unsure whether the issue will prey on their minds ahead of Sunday’s meeting with Rangers.

In an interview at Tynecastle yesterday, Andrew Driver initially claimed that the players had received their wages on schedule just three times in the last two years before backtracking and indicating it may have been more often than that.

No matter the frequency of the late arrival of money into their bank accounts, however, the winger confessed the repetition of the problem had become a serious topic of conversation on pay day and one that has been drawn out by the increasing length of time taken by the club to transfer the cash.

The Gorgie outfit have again insisted there is no reason for major concern and that salaries will be with the players – and Sergio, who revealed yesterday he has also been affected – by today. But the Portuguese coach was unwilling to play down the matter yesterday when speaking ahead of this weekend’s home encounter with Rangers.

“It’s never good for anybody,” he said, “but I think our directors don’t want that either. So hopefully everything will be okay.

“Nobody should be used to that. These are hard times and responsible people are trying to fix that. I hope that it’s a problem in this moment that doesn’t arrive too many times.

“I hope it doesn’t affect the players. But think about yourself. If you don’t receive your money at the correct moment, you wouldn’t be happy with that. But people are talking with us and we are informed that it’s a problem for the moment, one to be solved by the end of the week. I just want to be sure that the players have their wages in time.”

Whilst acknowledging the global nature of the financial problems is affecting many more households than those troubled by Hearts paying their players late, Driver yesterday admitted the club’s handling of the issue had raised questions within the squad.

Happy to be paid and content with having a job during these difficult economic times, the 23-year-old nonetheless has had to change the dates of his direct debits in order to be safe from money reaching his bank account late. And, beyond such practicalities, he admits the issue is increasingly a concern for the squad.

“On pay day, it’s usually a topic of conversation,” he said. “It’s the fact that the days between getting paid is getting longer. We’ve always been paid, we’re not worried about getting paid, just about the time between pay days.

“As a conversation point, you do talk about it. Some boys obviously get more frustrated than others, put it that way.

“Yes, some of us are used to it. But it’s frustrating, although it would be a lot more frustrating if we weren’t getting paid.

“The way it’s happened a few times this year is the wages are supposed to go in on a Friday and when they don’t you can’t raise it with them until Saturday – and there’s nothing they can do about it until the Monday, so that’s three days right away.

“When the Monday comes, you start questioning and they start really trying to sort it out. But it is complicated, I think, with transfers from Lithuania. It can’t be easy. We can only put a bit of pressure on for them to sort it out as quickly as possible.

“When we ask for an explanation, we just get told that it’s being sorted out. They are quite honest about when it’s going to come. It is usually there on or around the day they say it’s going to be. But it’s still late. I don’t understand why they don’t do what they’re doing the week before, so it arrives on time.

“These are things you could do without but it’s the same for everyone in any job. There are a lot of people in the world struggling to get paid right now, so we’re blessed to have wages.

“I’m not saying it’s right that we get paid late. But we do get paid.”