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Just a quarter of an hour after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

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

This is precisely how he's wanted 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 team is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the criticism when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager employed the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with one since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes