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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he convinced to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

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

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

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

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

To return to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, 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 termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the implication of the article.

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

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes