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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

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

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

He has accused him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

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

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes