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Just a quarter of an hour after the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how unusual things have grown at the club.

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

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

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

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

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in public that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members 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 extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

To return to better times, they were close, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

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

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes