🔗 Share this article

Merely a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of their manager's shock departure via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. Plus the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering comments he has expressed recently, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote he.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the one with the authority to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in team annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the club with private missives to media organisations, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get this far down the line?

If the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

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

He claims his statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards individuals of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to no one other.

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

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. He publicly commented about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the endless delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he said.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It said that the manager was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his exit, that was the implication of the story.

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes