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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he convinced to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having left - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes