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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

The man he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was another example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

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

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

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

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes