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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

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

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to better times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

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

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay 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 need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

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

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes