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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend team annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he allow it to get this far down the line?

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

He has accused him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims his statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son 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 back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes