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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

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

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

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

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes