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

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

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

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll see this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not removed?

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

He says his statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the criticism when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation 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.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his way out, this was the implication of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes