🔗 Share this article

Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's shock departure via a brief short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to Tottenham in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been eager to get another job. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another example of how unusual things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, sending his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

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

This is precisely how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

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

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who drew the heat when Rodgers' comeback happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. He spoke openly about the sluggish process the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the club splurged record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m one signing, the costly Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with Idah since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes