🔗 Share this article

Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

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

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been eager to secure another job. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, 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 could possibly reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not attend club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

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

Desmond has accused him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic 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.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not support his plans to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes