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Merely fifteen minutes after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? 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

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

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

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

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

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

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes