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Just fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he convinced to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal way the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

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

He has charged him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial 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 departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes