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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

The man he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager 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 after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in public that did not tally with the facts.

He says his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted 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 typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes