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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication 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 directors did not support his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes