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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He will see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described the former manager.

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

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

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

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

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

To return to happier times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks 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 claim. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes