GUDNI Bergsson confirmed for the umpteenth time last week that there is no way he will still be playing next season.

So why can't I see it?

If he says this is his last season then surely we've got to accept that Gudni will not be at the heart of Wanderers' defence after next month.

Yet no matter how many times I hear it I still can't believe Wanderers will be lining up next season without him.

It's not based on any logical argument, merely the feeling that nobody, not even someone as intelligent and as solid a character as Gudni, can turn down the chance to play football for an obscene amount of money in the best league in the world when he is in some of the best form of his life.

Anyone who has ever been in the game always say you play as long as you can.

But Gudni knows his situation better than anyone, especially an amateur mind reader like me, and if he insists nothing will change his mind then you've got to believe him. Last week when assistant manager Phil Brown said he would be crazy to call it a day Gudni said he was flattered but unswerving in his decision.

Personal reasons maybe. Possibly an overwhelming desire to finally get cracking with his new career in law. After all he did spend years getting his degree and he obviously doesn't want to waste it.

Gudni has been down this track before, of course. Last season and the season before he said he would finish at the end of those seasons only to reverse his decisions because he wanted another crack at the Premiership.

Cynics might say the money probably had something to do with it as well but if that was the deciding factor this time then surely he would already have announced he was carrying on because Wanderers obviously want him to stay.

No. He seems resolute this time that nothing is going to change his mind which is a massive shame because this season he has been one of the best centre halves in the Premiership, a real candidate for the Premiership Player of the Season regardless of what Henry and Shearer have done.

He has had Owen, Henry and Anelka in his pocket and is one of the few defenders in the league who have been able to give Wayne Rooney a start and catch him up.

Maybe it's just me wanting him to carry on (his press conferences are as good as his performances) but I really do have this feeling that when it comes to the moment of truth he just won't be able to give up the football and all the trappings that go with it.