DAVID Beckham is never out of the news and caused another stir this week when he joined his England team-mates in Sardinia.

When he lived in England, it was difficult towards the end for the press to get any interviews at all.

Now he is in Spain, the PR machine behind him and his wife will make sure that he isn't forgotten so he tells us that it is his duty to talk to the press because he is England captain.

So he was totally ill advised to say that because of recent events he would not appear at this week's press conference if a certain two newspapers and two TV stations were there.

The rest of the media, who incidentally had been charged £500 each - surely another PR clanger - gave the FA a blunt answer. All or nothing - and Beckham, pictured, had to climb down.

However, this gave everybody the opportunity to regurgitate the very stories he was complaining about in the first place.

In my younger days I had many a run-in, particularly with the local media, and there have been many instances of clubs banning reporters at various times.

But it never works out. As you get older and more experienced, you realise that you need each other.

With the advent of plc companies into the football business, PR companies are employed who gather every word written and broadcast about their clubs or individual chairmen or managers.

Who would Beckham have known who to ban otherwise?

All this information naturally upsets the person on the end of it, but if it hadn't been pointed out, life would have gone on and the old adage of today's news, tomorrow's fish and chip paper, would possibly have applied.

But as all of people involved nowadays have to realise, if they want to use the media as an instrument to help themselves out at various times, they have to accept the criticism that comes at other times.