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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said lately, he has been eager to get another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the brutal way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

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

There was always - always - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one since having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes