🔗 Share this article

Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

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

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, he has been eager to get another job. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with confidential 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 just what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting things in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah already having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent 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 appeared like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a source close to the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the article.

The fans were enraged. They then saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation 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 plain the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes