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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

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

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes