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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he again turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

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

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

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

He has accused him of distorting information in public that did not tally with the facts.

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes