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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in public that did not tally with the facts.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members did not support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called 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 plain Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes