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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

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

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has said recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the team 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 entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers 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 club. It said that the manager was harming 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 way out, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring triumph.

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

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

The regular {gripes