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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

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

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since 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 next news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes