Ferguson humiliated me, says Becks
Beckham, who had a rib injury at the time of the November reception, then went for a holiday to Barbados with his pop star wife Victoria and sons Brooklyn and Romeo.
"I came back fresh. But I began to feel a chill in the atmosphere between me and Alex Ferguson," wrote England captain Beckham in his autobiography 'My Side', serialised in the News of the World.
"I asked him: 'Have you got a problem with me?' He did. A big problem. It was that instead of going straight on holiday I'd gone to Buckingham Palace with the rest of the players.
"He reckoned I'd have been fit sooner if I hadn't waited those extra couple of days before going away.
"I'm England captain... I felt it was my duty to be there.
"What the gaffer said next, I'll never forget: 'When I saw you turn up there I questioned your loyalty to United'.
"That stung," admitted midfielder Beckham, 28 who, until his July transfer to Real, had only ever played professional club football for United.
"We were all used to getting stick from the gaffer. But this was personal and humiliating," insisted Beckham, who in February had been hit in the head by a boot kicked by Ferguson after an FA Cup defeat against Arsenal.
Beckham - who scored his first league goal for Real on Saturday in a 2-1 win over Real Betis added he knew he would be leaving Old Trafford when the Scot named his team for the second leg of their Champions League quarter-final against Real and left him on the bench.
"I felt as if the whole of the season had been about him building up to to doing this to me."
Beckham, a late substitute, scored twice. But he also saw a free kick go narrowly wide. United won the match 4-3 but lost the tie 6-5 on aggregate.
After watching a replay of the game on television, Beckham said he could tell by Ferguson's reaction to his missed free-kick that his time at Old Trafford was over.
"My blood ran cold. His face told me everything I needed to know... it was all Beckham's fault.
"If it was anything to do with the gaffer - and, of course it would be - I was sure I was finished."
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