David Beckham has found himself back in the media spotlight in the last week - appearing on a Yahoo webchat before being interviewed on British television on Friday. Involved in the England World Cup set-up despite not being part of the playing squad and spearheading his nation's 2018 World Cup bid - Beckham is never far from the headlines.

Though his playing days appear to be coming towards a close, the LA Galaxy midfielder's already astronomically high-profile has continued to rise - something that seems to irk Barney Ronay at the Guardian, who would like to see Beckham bow out of the spotlight gracefully.

"The sudden reappearance of David Beckham this week – giving interviews, frowning through webchats, being fondled by Jonathan Ross – was quite hard to comprehend at first. My own reactions ranged from bafflement, through a vague sense of hectoring persecution, to a grudging acceptance that this is in some way inevitable.

Right now it is hard to avoid the conclusion that Beckham will simply never go away. The World Cup is barely cold in the ground; we may have been jilted horribly at the altar, left raw and giddy and snot-smeared in our smudged wedding lace, but here he is again – here's mummy, a single liver-spotted hand clenching our wrist, leaning in and breathing into our face and saying: "It's OK, dear. You'll always have me. Always. Always."

Not going away is a new thing. People used to go away. England's 1966 World Cup winners went away for decades. Beckham, though: not so much. In ambassadorial semi-retirement his sole outstanding quality is an absolute refusal to go away. This is his thing and it would be a mistake to assume that it makes him in some way an irrelevance or a side issue.

Beckham was, after all, the only England footballer to have a great World Cup, albeit mainly this was down to the fantastic expression on his face throughout: concerned, interested, but also let down and – crucially – not really involved or to blame in any way."

Elsewhere, Manchester City have also enjoyed much of the spotlight over the summer, mainly thanks to their flurry of transfer activity. The arrivals of Yaya Toure, Jerome Boateng and David Silva have led many to believe that Roberto Mancini's side could emerge as genuine title contenders next season.

But Des Kelly at the Mail believes that the actions of City chief exec Garry Cook - who he nicknames 'Santa Claus" for his incessant spending - in bringing even more foreign players to the Premier League could negatively affect the future of the England team.

"They call him Santa Claus. And here he comes now, carrying a pile of expensive presents and shiny new toys to play with. It's the nickname football agents and club executives across Europe have given to Manchester City chief executive Garry Cook as they watch him arrive at various airports waving Sheik Mansour's chequebook around.

Whenever Cook opens transfer negotiations, he may as well wrap some ribbon round his head and stick a bow on the end of his nose since everyone regards him as all their Christmases, birthdays and Easters rolled into one. Already this summer Santa has dished out £75million, nudging City's spending towards the £300m mark in three seasons.

So don't worry about that World Cup depression; forget about England's dismal failure. Just look at all the new players in the Premier League. City have recruited a Serb, a Spaniard, an Ivorian and a German - Aleksandar Kolarov, David Silva, Yaya Toure and Jerome Boateng.

But who cares that it isn't going to help Fabio Capello? The new kits are in the shops and middle-aged men are again trying to cram bellies into replica jerseys, despite the danger that someone might strap a wicker basket underneath them and light a fire just to see if they will float."