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Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

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

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated 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 dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? 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 Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And that's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not removed?

He has charged him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the necessity for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period 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 departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the article.

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

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes