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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the news of their manager's shock departure via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically 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 unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another example of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend team AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called 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 frequent {gripes