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Merely a quarter of an hour following the club issued the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

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

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has said recently, he has been keen to get another job. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, 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 difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were angered. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes