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Just fifteen minutes after the club issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said recently, he has been keen to get another job. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private 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 directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

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

To return to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

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

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes