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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has said recently, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

He has charged 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 team and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members did not back his plans to bring success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes