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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades 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, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

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

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

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

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

He claims his statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the heat when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not back his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes