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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading his invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

He has accused him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects 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 transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not back his vision to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes