Former Central Coast Mariners assistant Sergio Raimundo joined forces with Ange Postecoglou at Tottenham and made history. He spoke to aleagues.com.au about winning the UEFA Europa League after his transformative Gosford stint.
Sergio Raimundo is born and bred in Portugal, but he is virtually an honorary Australian given his impact on the local game.
Raimundo, alongside head coach Nick Montgomery, helped transform Central Coast Mariners from the bottom up – turning the Isuzu UTE A-League cellar dwellers into the kings of Australian football in 2023.
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Even in the midst of Tottenham’s extraordinary and drought-ending UEFA Europa League feat, the former Mariners assistant was flying the A-Leagues flag alongside some of the competition’s true greats – Ange Postecoglou, Mile Jedinak and Montgomery as Spurs captured their first piece of silverware in 17 years and first European crown in over four decades.
“I was born in Portugal and I’m Portuguese but kind of feel like part of the A-League too,” Raimundo told aleagues.com.au.
“The A-League actually gave me a lot. I’ve gave a lot back. So it was very, very nice night to be working with the best Australian coach ever and help him to conquer such a big trophy.
“It’s a massive trophy, because not many people win European trophies. I was actually doing my maths in terms of Portuguese coaches that have done it before. One was (Jose) Mourinho, the other was (Andre) Villas-Boas and their staffs. So you can count maybe with the two hands, the amount of Portuguese coaches which are highly rated that actually won the Europa League. It shows you the magnitude of the trophy.
“I think winning a Champions League or a Europa League, even the Conference League, it’s not easy. It requires a lot of study, work, adaptation, and you always play against the top teams in their countries with different styles, and that can be hard because you don’t know them as well. You don’t know the leagues as well. So you really have to make deep studies on them and then prepare the games and the travels.”
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It was a magical night in Bilbao, where Tottenham ditched their ‘Spursy’ tag to conquer Manchester United and end the club’s painstaking wait for silverware despite an unprecedented injury crisis.
Postecoglou became the first Australian to win a European cup trophy as he also secured UEFA Champions League qualification before being dismissed by the Premier League club.
For Raimundo, there were correlations between Central Coast’s first Championship in a decade and Tottenham’s drought-ending success.
“I think the adrenaline went on not just for one night, it went on for the next 10 days,” said Raimundo, whose shares the same Portuguese mentor as Jose Mourinho.
“It was amazing because it’s a bit like the Mariners. You talk about two clubs that didn’t have the trophy for so many years. So Mariners was 10, Tottenham was 17 – 41 if you talk about a European title. Just to see the happiness of the people in in the stands, and people crying and saying their kids have never seen their club win a title. It was a big buzz. Everybody is so happy.
“We celebrated that night with the families, and in the air, the buzz lasted 10 days. I think it’s going to last for life. When you win a title, it’s the connection of the group, that feeling it stays with you forever.”
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Despite an extraordinary injury crisis and ongoing speculation over Postecoglou’s future in 2024-25, the A-Leagues legend still managed to add another title to his collection with the support of his coaching staff.
Postecoglou talked the talk and walked the walk in London, delivering on the fact that he always wins in his second season.
“I think every everybody took it in a different way. So some had personal attacks, and maybe they took it in a different way,” Raimundo reflected when asked about the external noise surrounding Spurs last season and whether it was more satisfying to prevail in light of it.
“For us, it was not just about the ones that were negative, was also for the ones that were actually positive about it and supported and the ones that were we had a case in the letter that was written to us of somebody that was at the hospital and how much that mean to them and so many things.
“So many people wanted us to do well too, as a group, as a team, that we didn’t just focus on the noise, the negative. That’s actually something you can stop. You can only stick to your process and keep working.
“It was satisfying for me. I think you ask everybody personally, I don’t think it’s a group thing, but for me, the satisfaction came from the people that that were watching that game on TV, the people that were at the stadium on that day, the people that wanted us to do well individually, because they’re our family or as a collective, because they support the club.
“For me, it was more for them. The other ones, automatically, you turn non-believers into believers once you get the results. So you have to focus on getting the results and staying in your process to get those results and turn the non believers into believers.”
For Raimundo, like Montgomery, May’s magical European night capped an incredible 12 months.
Rewind back to May last year; Montgomery was sacked by Hibernian, along with trusted number two Raimundo, only eight months into the Scottish Premiership project which featured a semi-final cup run, having been prised from the Mariners to a club at the foot of the table.
Then, Postecoglou called. A month later, Montgomery and Raimundo were at Tottenham.
12 months on, they are Europa League champions.
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“I thought it was going on the right way (at Hibs),” Raimundo said. “I think Monty also thought that, but I’m glad because we weren’t able to get where we wanted to get in terms of recruitment. So it was best for both parties in the end, it was already in May, so it wasn’t mid season or something. We kind of split.
“From there we start having a lot of offers from many places. Me and Monty were saying, ‘Okay, is it one gonna go? Is it the other?’ At the beginning, we didn’t know if he was going alone to Tottenham. I was very happy for him. I said it’s an opportunity you have to take. Forget about me in this moment, it’s not important.
“In the end, we were both able to go. It was fantastic. Everything happens for a reason. I was very happy that you are going to the best league in the world, working with one of the best managers in the world, the best ever Australian manager, which I respect a lot.
“Because obviously I’ve been in the A-League, so I have maybe a different thought process from most of the people in Europe that have never been there and think it’s an easy league. I always tell them, if you think it’s easy, go there and win it, because it’s not as easy.
“Especially the way we’ve done it, with lowest budget and the youngest squad. I think Ange also saw a bit of braveness in us to leave something we just won and go to something that there was a very hard situation. We were warned by several people, that it was a very hard situation.
“In the end, we won the Europa League, Hibs also had more success this season, which is good. That’s what we want to see, clubs doing better. Even when we left the Mariners, (them) winning is fantastic. You want to keep things built positively, not see them falling apart.
“I wouldn’t change one step from the first day I started coaching until today, I won’t change one step. Everything just fell into what it needed to fall into. I’m a big believer that everything happens for a reason, and that’s what happened once again.”
It has been a whirlwind journey for Raimundo. In June 2023, he and Montgomery oversaw Central Coast’s stunning renaissance. From rebuilding the club’s ailing academy to reaching the promised land with limited resources and an exciting crop of unheralded youngsters.
It started with a belief and vision for the Mariners. It was capped by a stunning 6-1 Grand Final rout of Melbourne City.
The likes of Max Balard, Josh Nisbet, Dan Hall, Garang Kuol and Jacob Farrell were all unearthed by the pair and emerged through the academy before making the step up to first-team football and playing a key part in the Mariners conquering the A-Leagues.
Those young stars were complimented by unheralded recruits Jason Cummings, Brian Kaltak, Beni Nkololo, Marco Tulio, Nectar Triantis, Sammy Silvera – a group of players unified by vision and belief.
Those foundations paved the way for the Mariners to enjoy a history-making 2023-24 campaign which featured an unprecedented treble – the Isuzu UTE A-League Premiership/Championship double and an AFC Cup crown.
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“In football, you can talk and you can say all the right things, but it’s different saying from doing, and you never saw me speaking much before, maybe now, because of the level we came from now,” Raimundo reflected.
“But we never really spoke a lot but we did deliver the lot, and we did help many players to move on to better. We did implement the structure in the club.
“We did develop staff, not only players, but many staff that ended up going for full-time jobs and started as interns at the club.
“So we did have a culture of helping develop people, and the people gave you back. So we got to a point where we started in the first team. Nobody wanted to come to the club, to the point when we left the first team, everybody wanted to come to the club, and it became a club that helps people, that it’s easy to deal with, that really transfers players into big things, and goes and wins titles, which is not easy.
“We can have 100 people making presentations, but the presentation doesn’t show you the end product. So for me, it counts if you have the presentation and if you deliver them with the end product, which is recruit well, develop players, develop staff and help people achieve bigger things.
“I couldn’t be prouder of that, and I’m still in touch with most of the boys. Then we came to Hibs, and we work with Lewis Miller. We bring Nectar Triantis, and it’s kind of part of a continuation of that. Then you see Farrell going to Portsmouth, when we knew when he started back there with us in the Under-20s, not even NPL, not many people really believed he could become a professional footballer.
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“Like Max Balard. So everybody would say that Max has this, he doesn’t do this well or that well, or Farrell. Then you see Farrell and Max getting into great teams in Europe. Then you see Garang. Then you see Kaltak at 29 having his first professional contract ever. The first professional player from Vanuatu.
“This is what actually made us and fuelled us. We weren’t much of speaking, but we delivered a lot. Now, maybe we speak a bit more because we have more of a profile, but when we started back there, we had a bag of balls, a piece of grass, and we were told, please don’t be relegated to NPL 3.
“Then you end up winning the league with most of those players, with Balard, Farrell, even Nisbet, Dan Hall, all these guys. So it’s look it’s fantastic. It was a mix of talking but delivering also.”
Raimundo added: “I still laugh with Monty because we say, a few years ago we were training at 7am, waking up 530 and now see what we got.
“I don’t want to look arrogant, but I did have the belief all the time. I do know that our process is different and it’s good, and combining with people like Ange that has been winning his whole life, it can only work. I did always have the belief.
“I do have the belief that even one day we can win the Champions League. I don’t know if the pathway is going to take us that way, because there’s so many leagues, so many possibilities, and there’s so much we would like to still experience.
“But I did have the belief when we were doing things with NPL 2. I had the belief that we could develop those players that were underdeveloped into becoming European level, top league players. You see the amount of them up here, or already came and went back, there was that belief.
“I do believe a lot in the in the process. I know the process delivers. I’ve also been through Benfica Academy, which developed a lot of the top young players, and worked with some of the best players in the world, and played against some here in the Premier League this season, which was great.
“Monty also came through Sheffield United, and then helped developed young players and making them turn into top, top players in the world. We know what world class means. We do believe we have the process because of the experiences we had, and going through them.
“You may think you have it all, but sometimes you don’t have the opportunity. So it was Ange who gave us that opportunity, and together we won something fantastic with the help of the whole club, the players, the whole staff. It’s opportunity meets quality, then it’s on you to deliver.
“Either you’re gonna keep speaking or you speak, work and deliver, and we’re like the postman, we always deliver.”
