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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Again

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming 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 exit, this was the tone of the story.

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

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation 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 Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes