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Just fifteen minutes following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. And the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will view this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

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

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances 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 that's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable 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 dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers 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 Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes