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Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. And the man he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, 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 organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with one 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 within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes