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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

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

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been eager to get another job. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant presence, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend team annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

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

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

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

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his plans to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes