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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he again turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, 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 justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes