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Just a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

In 551-words, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on things he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the expense of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

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

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not removed?

He has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who drew the criticism when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a love-in once more.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way the team went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes