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Just fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

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

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

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. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, 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 originated from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes