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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

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

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important calls he pleases 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, gives media talks about Celtic 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 organization with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get 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 spinning things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected 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 unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? 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 report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his way out, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes