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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility 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 unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

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

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few 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.

Desmond had his support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes