🔗 Share this article

Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the news of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

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

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was another example of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source close to the club. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his exit, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes