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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically 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 circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He will see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how unusual things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in public that did not tally with the facts.

He says his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes