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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure 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 takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He will view this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will 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 moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not removed?

He has accused him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It said 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 present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes