'Tis the season to be merry and yesterday Jose Mourinho managed to bring goodwill to Goodison Park when he issued a public apology to Everton, their manager David Moyes and their striker Andrew Johnson for having labelled the player a "diver".
Public acts of contrition on Mourinho's part are as rare as visits from Santa. The last time news of him saying sorry to anyone leaked into the media was, uncannily, almost exactly a year ago.
On that occasion Mourinho wrote a Christmas card to the Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger in which he apologised for allowing the simmering feud between the pair to become public, and for accusing his rival of being a "voyeur". Wenger refused to believe that Mourinho had actually written the message and sent a minion to check, plunging relations between the pair back to their iciest.
This time Mourinho's apology received a warmer welcome, with Everton's chief executive, Keith Wyness, insisting "common sense has prevailed and this is an end to the matter". The club have abandoned their proposed legal action for defamation, which had been backed by the player's representatives BaseSoccer.
The argument was caused by an incident in last Sunday's match between the clubs. Johnson fell in the penalty area as visiting goalkeeper Hilario attempted to challenge, prompting Mourinho into a bout of imaginary card-waving and, later, his comments to the media in which he claimed Johnson was "untrustworthy" and "chased penalties".
"After seeing it again on the video (the referee) Mr Halsey did wonderful work," said Mourinho yesterday. "Did Andy Johnson try to avoid a collision with my goalkeeper? It seems now the answer to that is yes, so Everton, his manager and he deserve my apologies." With that, Mourinho's atonement was complete.
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