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Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he convinced to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

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

He does not attend team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

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

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

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

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

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

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager employed the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

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

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes