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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club issued the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

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

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not support his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes