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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

The man he convinced to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. And the figure he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. 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 defend the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard 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 Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

He has accused him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

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

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

Desmond had his support. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming 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 engineering his exit, that was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes