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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

The man he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost 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 series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty 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?

He has charged him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? 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 came from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

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

By then it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes