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Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

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

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

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

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to achieve success.

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

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

The frequent {gripes