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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will 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 O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship again.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes