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Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

In 551-words, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

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

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will see this role as the perfect 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 readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

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

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not back his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes