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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

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

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his 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 directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

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

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes