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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes