🔗 Share this article

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

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

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

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence 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!' moment was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

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

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reviewing his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he allow it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not removed?

He has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with the facts.

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

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

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

Looking back to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes