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Merely a quarter of an hour following the club issued the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the man he once more relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been eager to get another job. He will see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the place where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

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

It was a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He says Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have cut it to date, with one since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members did not back his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes