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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to join the club 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.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was another example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

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

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes