English media published photos of the 27-year-old player meeting with Blues chief executive Peter Kenyon in a bar, which many felt was motivated on his part by a desire to move to the Premiership champions.

After the photos made the rounds, Ferdinand had a lot of explaining to do, and in his new book 'Rio My Story,' he admitted he was scared that Manchester United boss Alex Ferguson would give him the axe.

"I feared the worst when the picture was in the papers and decided that I would go and see the manager (Ferguson) when I arrived for training and explain," Ferdinand said in his book which is being serialized in The Sun.

"I didn't need to. He called me in first thing and went absolutely bananas. He said 'what the hell's going on?" Ferdinand recounted.

"He hammered me and quite rightly. I got the treatment. I'd never seen him so angry; it was far worse than when I missed the drugs test. Much worse."

Ferguson was so outraged by the defender's actions that Ferdinand was worried he would be denied the contract extension with Manchester United that he had hoped to sign.

"I couldn't say a lot because I was in the wrong. I just said again 'boss, I don't want to sign for nobody. I want to sign for Man United. I told you at the beginning I want to sign for United," he said.

"For a moment I was worried he was going to say, 'I'm going to sell you," he added.

"The meeting went on for 15 minutes and he was going: 'You know how people will interpret it. It doesn't matter what you said."

The Scottish manager went on to chastise Ferdinand for his poor behavior and warned him against speaking with Kenyon under any circumstances.

"It doesn't matter if you were talking about the price of milk, the time of day or the color of the table you were sitting at. It's just so stupid of you to go there and meet Kenyon'."