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Just fifteen minutes after the club released the news of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

The man he persuaded to join the team when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Based on comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was another example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never attend club annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the club with private messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why did he permit it to reach this far down the line?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

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

Looking back to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans turned into a love-in once more.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he called "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the story.

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the responsible individual to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes