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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

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

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been eager to get another job. He'll see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

He has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic 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 loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his goals clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

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

The frequent {gripes