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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence 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!' development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the coach not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes