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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He will see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal way the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

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

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the heat when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes