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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

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

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes