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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

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

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get 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 inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes