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Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll see this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Would he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend team AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the club with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

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

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says his statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the club and encouraged hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned 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 put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. If there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

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

The frequent {gripes