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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said recently, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

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

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put 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 trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "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 one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

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

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the story.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor 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 demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes