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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series 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 things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

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

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy 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.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging 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, that was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes