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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus 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 critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He will view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

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

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to no one other.

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

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers 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, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes