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

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another example of how unusual situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

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

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

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

To return to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

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

Desmond had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his way out, that was the implication of the story.

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 vision to bring success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes