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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback 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 circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

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

He never participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

He has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

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

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

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

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager 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 way out, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not back his vision to bring triumph.

The leak 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 removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes