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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the heat when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was playing 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 the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an investigation 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 the manager was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes