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Merely fifteen minutes following the club released the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In 551-words, key investor Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He will view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the power to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend team AGMs, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

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

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he contradicted 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 get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

To return to happier times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the heat when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes