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Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that did not tally with the facts.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the heat when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes