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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham 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 club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes