🔗 Share this article

Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has said lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "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 business being conducted with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

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

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not removed?

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

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

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

It was the figure who took the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often 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 concurred with him.

Despite the club spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it so far, with one since having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source associated with the organization. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes