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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with private missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

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

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes