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Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he once more turned to after the previous manager left for another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has expressed lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how unusual things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to make all the important decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, sending his son, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

It's exactly how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the coach not removed?

He has charged him of spinning things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who took the heat when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition clashed with the club's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks 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 playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his directors wouldn't support 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 responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes