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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief short statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's exactly what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes