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Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He will see this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

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

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

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

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

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

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the heat when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes