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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way Desmond described the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

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

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes