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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

The man he convinced to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, 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 club annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

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

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

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

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the criticism when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes