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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

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

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

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was a further example of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

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

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

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

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

Looking back to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation 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 the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes