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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said recently, he has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

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

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was another illustration of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he allow it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

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

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly came from a insider associated with the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes