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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he convinced to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

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

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting things in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

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

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation 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 Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes