🔗 Share this article

Just a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

The man he convinced to join the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the man he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He will see this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how unusual situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

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

He 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 team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear Rodgers was shedding the support of the people above him.

The regular {gripes