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Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the man he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the manager not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with the club's business model, 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 player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next 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 story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes