Marouane Fellaini's Manchester United career reached its low point on Sunday, December 11th as he was booed by a section of the Old Trafford when he went to warm up against Spurs one week after costing his team a win with an idiotic challenge late on away to Everton.
While Fellaini has put in a number of good games and patches of form at Man Utd, it's clear that his signing, by David Moyes on transfer deadline day in 2013, was not a good one.
But what is also clear is that Jose Mourinho is fond of the big Belgian.
He lashed out at the fans who booed him, and rightly so, after the incident during the Spurs game, but while most of the fans want to see him gone, Mourinho has been adamant that Fellaini has a role to play at Old Trafford.
That's why when the much-maligned midfielder nodded home Man Utd's second goal in Tuesday night's 2-0 EFL Cup win against Hull City, Fellaini gave his manager a great big bear hug as his celebration.
Jose Mourinho was asked what that hug meant post-match, and gave his view to Sky Sports:
I think he wanted everyone to know that he knows how much I supported him, probably it was because I told him he was going to score the second goal.
But there's more to it than that.
The celebration speaks volumes. Not only in how much Fellaini enjoys working for his new boss, but also at the atmosphere that Mourinho has generated at Old Trafford.
As recently as November is was levelled at Mourinho that the players were not happy with his methods. That Rooney wasn't a fan of him, that the players weren't happy with what was happening to Schweinsteiger and the criticism of Luke Shaw, but Mourinho has clearly got the players playing for him, and that is huge.
Not since Fergie have you felt that the players were really putting the effort in for the manager. Under Moyes and Van Gaal it looked like if there was no goal by half-time, there wouldn't be a goal for Man Utd, but the amount of late goals which have secured results in recent times shows that Mourinho is having the desired effect at Old Trafford.
Another example can be seen from the fan footage of Paul Pogba's late winner against Middlesbrough. A passion that simply was not there in the past four years is back.
That's a good sign. It's now nine successive wins for Man Utd, something that hasn't been done since 2009.
On a night when it emerged that Fellaini has an offer from China, that confidence that Mourinho had in Fellaini, and the manner in which he delivered, suggests those who want to see the Belgian out of Old Trafford should not hold their breath.
