🔗 Share this article

Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for 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 secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with private missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

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

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. 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 preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

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

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes