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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

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

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why he permit it to get such a critical point?

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

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a love-in again.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds 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 since having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes