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Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to get a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he experienced such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For somebody who values propriety and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of distorting information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Again

To return to happier times, they were close, the two men. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the heat when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having left - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the implication of the story.

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes