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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

The man he convinced to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how unusual things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that did not tally with reality.

He says his words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

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

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not support his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes