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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

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

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects 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 necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded 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 plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes