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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the man he again turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the brutal way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. 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 media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

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

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

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

He says his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated 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 orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes