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Just fifteen minutes following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the man he again turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will view this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes