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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has said lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with one since having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the implication of the story.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes