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Merely a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. And the man he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He will see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team 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 club with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to better times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to no one other.

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

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having departed - the manager pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear the manager was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes