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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

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

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like he was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, that was the implication of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes