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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

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

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. 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 he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the story.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

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

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes