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Just a quarter of an hour after the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

The man he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And that's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the board. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the tone of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was shedding the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes