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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable 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 Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

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

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes