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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity 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 takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

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

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual 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 attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

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

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not removed?

He has charged him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts 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 so far, with one since having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly reverse what he said.

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

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

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

The regular {gripes