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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed recently, he has been eager to get another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

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

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

He has accused him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the heat when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. 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.

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

The regular {gripes