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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. 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 support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not removed?

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

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic 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 entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, 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 heard no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes