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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get another job. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

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

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

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

Looking back to happier times, they were close, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with one since having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes