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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief short statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

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

If the manager is guilty of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having departed - 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 remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called 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