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

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering things he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how unusual things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

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

The directive from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, 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 says his statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

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

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

This was Desmond who took the heat when his comeback happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the charm, delivered the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Time and again he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his exit, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not back his plans to bring success.

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

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

The frequent {gripes