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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

The man he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He will view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

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

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes