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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said recently, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

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. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He says his statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to no one other.

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

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes