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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes