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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has said recently, he has been keen to get another job. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why he permit it to get this far down the line?

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

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the heat when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not back his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes