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Just fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He will see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with confidential messages 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 that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

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

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes