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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will see this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

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

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the criticism when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

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

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded 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 clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes