David Beckham confirmed last night that he will join AC Milan on a short-term loan deal during the Major League Soccer close season but emphasised that he is not saying arrivederci to his underperforming MLS side, LA Galaxy.

The 33-year-old England midfielder’s honeymoon in Hollywood is long over, to such an extent that the LA Times suggested on Friday that “the Beckham circus could fold its tents and the club could go back to being what it once was — competitive in MLS”. Galaxy lie second from bottom of the Western Standings going into today’s final game of the regular season against FC Dallas and have no chance of reaching the playoffs, which they also failed to do in Beckham’s first season in California. Their record of eight wins, 13 defeats and eight draws is symptomatic of an experiment gone badly wrong.

But despite Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti’s declaration that the Rossonneri would like to make the proposed move permanent, the Galaxy captain insisted that he will be back in California for the start of the 2009 MLS season. “I will be back. My commitment is to the Galaxy and that has not changed,” Beckham said.

“Footballers don’t have four months off in any league in the world apart from here. It’s my second season and I’m not prepared to have that time off without playing or training. I don’t agree with the amount of time off we have here. My body is not programmed for that.

“It’s a two-month spell, maybe a little longer. Milan have got a great team, so I’m not expecting to go straight in the starting line-up. I will have to earn the right to get into that team. I’m in Serie A form. It’s about getting my fitness up.

“I came to the Galaxy to actually win trophies so I want to do that. I’m also very committed to my role as the MLS ambassador as well. It’s been slightly disappointing because we haven’t made the playoffs again. But on the other side of it, the success of the MLS as a whole and the attendances and things like that, they have all been rising, so it’s a great position the MLS is in at the moment.

“My hope for the season coming with the Galaxy is to win trophies. With Bruce Arena as manager, it’s important that we forget the disappointments and step up to the challenge.”

Landon Donovan, Beckham’s teammate, spoke for many in the Galaxy team when he criticised the timing of Beckham’s announcement. “It could have been better timed,” said Donovan, whose own future is in the balance, for he is a target for Jurgen Klinsmann at Bayern Munich.

“It doesn't make a huge difference but it would have been nice to have waited. I am waiting until after Sunday’s game before anything on my future comes out.”

There has been no official comment from Galaxy’s owners, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), but Arena said on Wednesday: “I don’t see where that benefits MLS or the Galaxy. Given the position the Galaxy is in, it would seem very odd to me if we were loaning out our top players at the start of the season. ”

In the past four years Galaxy have accumulated 41 wins, 55 defeats and 27 draws in the regular season. Only Real Salt Lake, a new MLS franchise, has fared worse.

Last season Beckham drew a crowd of 66,237 to Giants Stadium in New Jersey to watch him play the New York Red Bulls but this season the attendance was 46,754. FC Dallas had a crowd of 22,331 when Beckham came to Pizza Hut Park in May, up from 14,600 when Galaxy played there without Beckham last June. But the attendances fell to 8,960 and 8,541 for each of Dallas’s next two home games, signs that Beckham’s impact is only ephemeral.

Galaxy have yet to say they are happy with the idea. “We are in exploratory talks to look at whether [it] makes sense for the Galaxy and David,” MLS deputy commissioner Ivan Gazidis said on Thursday. “If it does — and only if it does — then things will go forward.”