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Just fifteen minutes following the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the man he again relied on after the previous manager departed to Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this role as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner Desmond described the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was another example of how unusual situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not removed?

Desmond has accused 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 club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

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

To return to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

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

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. He spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that was the tone of the story.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes