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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the man he again turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get another job. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums 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 so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said 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 there and he was arranging his way out, that was the implication of the story.

The fans were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes