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Just a quarter of an hour after Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In 551-words, key investor Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the important calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why was the manager not removed?

He has charged him of distorting information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Ambition Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to Dermot and, really, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure 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 dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes