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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most controversial appointment, 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 lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes