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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another example of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why he permit it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the heat when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

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

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes