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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

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

He says his statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin 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 hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

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

The frequent {gripes