By Michael Lynch
January 23 2004

Gordan Strachan, Southampton manager, has admitted trying to talk Chris Marsden out of leaving the club for weeks and has expressed him sadness at him leaving.

Ex-Southampton player Chris Marsden has moved to start a new life in South Korea where he will play for Buscan Icons.

"As far as I know Chris is going to South Korea. I would like to have kept him here a bit longer and for the past three weeks I have tried my best to persuade him to stay here," Strachan told the club website.

"I kept asking him why he wants to go there but he has made up his mind that this is what he wants to do.

"He has been excellent for us. He had a terrific partnership with Wayne Bridge and when Wayne went we effectively lost two players.

"That partnership was very effective for us and we had to re-shape that side of the team.

"But Chris has been fantastic for me and for the club and for his team-mates and I will be very sad to see him go."

Strachan says that the door would always be open for Marsden should he want to return - and believes it is a strange decision to leave.

"I have tried for three weeks to persuade him to stay as there might have been occasions this season he would be needed.

"But he is pig-headed and when he makes his mind up, that is what he does. It is a strange decision but then he is a strange person.

"I have been asking him for three weeks why he is going there but I cannot stop him.

"The chairman is letting him go now because he was not going to give him another contract at the end of the season.

"We are going to miss him around the place but the door is always open for him to come back to the stadium or to train here."

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