🔗 Share this article

Just fifteen minutes following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

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

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were close, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with Celtic'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 interminable delay for targets 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 "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the story.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to bring success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes