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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 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 critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated 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 time. Considering things he has said lately, he has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

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

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims his statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans became a love-in again.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes