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Merely a quarter of an hour after the club released the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get another job. He will view this one as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

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

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

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

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

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

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with the club's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

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

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes