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Just fifteen minutes after the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He will see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

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

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

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

He says his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic 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 exit, that was the implication of the article.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes