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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

The man he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said recently, he has been keen to get another job. He will view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal way Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

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

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

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

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

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not back his vision to bring triumph.

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

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes