🔗 Share this article

Just fifteen minutes after Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment 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 their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And that's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's business model, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable 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 spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed 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 significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his vision to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes