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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

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

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will see this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit 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 responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes