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Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing 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 recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He will see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the heat when his comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the article.

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

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes