TRANSFER-listed goalkeeper Chris Tardif says he is in no desperation to leave Oxford United if he doesn't get the right offer from another club.

o Tardif asked for his name to be circulated to other clubs because his first-team opportunities with the U's last season were so limited.

He made just five appear- ances.

But although the 25-year-old former Portsmouth stopper, who has one year remaining on his Oxford contract, has attracted interest from abroad, he's not had an English club come looking for him.

"It's been all quiet on the western front," he said, speaking from Guernsey, where he was born and where he is on holiday.

"I've had a couple of sniffs from clubs abroad - one from Norway and one from Belgium - from my agent, but they don't interest me, to be honest.

"What I'd ideally like is a club near the south coast, but I'd be happy to take my next year at Oxford if that doesn't happen.

"I'm not desperate to leave the club, it's just that at my stage of life, I need to be playing more first-team football."

Tardif, who used to travel up to Oxford from the Ports- mouth area every day, but now lives in Bicester, has a strong affinity with the far south of England.

He has also played for Bournemouth, Newport (Isle of Wight) and Havant & Waterlooville on loan.

Speaking as he was walking to the beach late one afternoon with wife Laura and 13-month-old daughter Freya, he added: "Living around Oxford is very hard for me because I've grown up by the sea and love the sea, and we find it very hard as a family.

"I'm used to going to the beach after work or in the evenings . . . it's something I've grown up with and something I'd like my daughter to grow up with.

"I've got to think very carefully about my next step.

"I've got three years to push my career because then we need to be somewhere we want to stay for my daughter to go to school.

"If it hasn't got to the point I want it to get to, I've got to be brave enough to look elsewhere and think what else I want to do after football.

"Some time soon I might have to be brave enough to make that decision."

Tardif has played 62 times for United since joining them in May 2002. But his first taste of first-team action last season didn't come until he came on for the second half to replace No 1 Billy Turley in the dramatic 2-2 draw at Stevenage on December 2.

He did play in the final Conference game at York, but that was only after Turley suffered an injury scare in the warm-up.

"Last season was a really tough year for me mentally," he said. "Physically it was no problem. At the end I felt as fresh as a daisy.

"But it took a lot some days to get up and have the drive to go into training and just do my best. Yet that's what I always tried to do."