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Merely fifteen minutes following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced 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 turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

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

If the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not removed?

He has charged him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

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

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often 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 agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the implication of the story.

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes