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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

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

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

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

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this 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 news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

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

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes