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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the criticism when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. 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 frequent {gripes