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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the news of their manager's shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

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

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, 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 process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes