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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on the manager on that day.

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

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

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with one since having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

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

The frequent {gripes