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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

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

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will 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.

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

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, that was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to bring success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes