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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit 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 eager to secure another job. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

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

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

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes