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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

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

He does not participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

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

He claims his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who drew the heat when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

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

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes