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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has said lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another example of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading his invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

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

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded 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 clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes