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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He will see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way the shareholder described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

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

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans became a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes