🔗 Share this article

Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

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

He says his statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

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

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

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 report in a publication that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not back his plans to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes