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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve 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 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

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

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes