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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the man he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

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

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in public that did not tally with the facts.

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 directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes