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Merely fifteen minutes following the club released the news of their manager's shock departure via a brief short statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

This was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

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 unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he 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 organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team 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 article.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes