🔗 Share this article

Just a quarter of an hour after the club issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a return to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh manner Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal situations 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 take all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's just what he went against when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of distorting information in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Clashed with the Club's Model Again

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

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

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared 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 close to the organization. It said that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors did not back his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes