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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not removed?

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

He claims his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

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

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes