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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual'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 outright privacy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

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

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes