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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would 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 balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how unusual things have become at the club.

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

He never attend team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with the club's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes