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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, 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 concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager 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, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to achieve triumph.

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

By then it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes