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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been eager to secure another job. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, 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 conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does 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 support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

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

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes