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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, 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, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one 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 AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that the manager was harming the team 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 exit, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not support his vision to bring triumph.

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

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes