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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was a further example of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not removed?

He has accused him of distorting information in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes