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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic 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 club with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes