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Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get another job. He will view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder described the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source associated with the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the implication of the story.

The fans 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 back his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes