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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief short statement, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

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

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

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

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

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

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes