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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

The man he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He'll see this one as the ultimate chance, 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. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

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

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

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

He claims his statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the criticism when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes