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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has said recently, he has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the brutal way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team 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 messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes