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Merely a quarter of an hour following the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

The man he convinced to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss 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 continuous circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has expressed recently, he has been eager to get a new position. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

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

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the coach not removed?

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

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

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

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

This was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes