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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was another example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

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

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

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

He has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not back his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes