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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit 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 time. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

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 abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

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

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism 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 Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, 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 stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said that the manager was harming 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 arranging his way out, that was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring triumph.

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

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes