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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has said lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

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

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the heat when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable 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 called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes