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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return 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 continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

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

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. 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 harming the team with his public outbursts 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 implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes