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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, he has been eager to get another job. He will view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that he resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

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

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes