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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

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

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal way the shareholder described the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

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 still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager 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 coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, 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 left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes