Antti Niemi admitted he is disappointed at Gordon Strachan's decision to walk away in the summer but believes the Saints boss won't be out of football forever.

More importantly, the Finnish international also insists Strachan's impending departure from St Mary's won't have an adverse affect on the squad's morale.

Niemi was signed by Strachan in the summer of 2002 and has enjoyed great times under the former Scottish international.

And he reckons Strachan's self-imposed exile from the game will only be temporary.

He said: "I am a bit surprised by his decision.

"We all knew he hadn't signed a new contract and his current one ran out this year.

"We knew it was taking quite a while (to sign a new contract) and therefore there was a bit of doubt over whether he was going to stay. I was hoping he would.

"But being who he is, he can't give up football forever. We'll see him back.

"He just won't be able to give it up and in a year's time he'll be back again."

Niemi continued: "He's done well but if he feels like he needs a break then so be it. You can't tell anyone what he should do.

"He has been successful and taken the club on to the next level.

"I'm one of his players because he signed me and I'll be sad to see him go because I have huge respect for him.

"But we have to look forward and there are a few good managers out there. I hope we get a similar type of character to replace him.

"He is a bit of a character and is fun to be with.

"I probably haven't seen the bad side of him because things have been pretty good - there have been a few bad results but overall for Southampton this has been one of the best times in their history."

Niemi confessed that the first he knew about the decision was seeing it in the media on Friday morning.

But he believes it won't affect the rest of the season.

"It was all over the media before training on Friday so everybody knew about it," he said.

"But we had been concentrating on the Birmingham game so there was not too much to say.

"I don't think it will concern us. In some ways he may be relieved that everybody knows, but it shouldn't have any affect on the rest of the season.

"I believe that as a group we are professional and we play football for ourselves and not anybody else.

"You want to do your best and be the best, whoever is in charge."

Speaking of Saturday's defeat which stretched Saints' winless run to five matches, he added: "We scored first and I thought it could be our day, but it wasn't to be.

"We are in a similar situation to a little while ago where we weren't scoring and needed to get a result.

"Then we won three in a row and suddenly the world looked like a happy place.

"It's the same again - we drew with Leicester but didn't get the breaks.

"But we need to win games because we don't want to be looking over our shoulders."