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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have become at the club.

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

He does not attend team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is alleging 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 did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes