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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He will see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming the team 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 article.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes