🔗 Share this article

Just fifteen minutes following the club released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell landed, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

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

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has expressed lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He will view this one as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and praise.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at defamation, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright privacy, this was a further illustration of how unusual things have become at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the important decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend club annual meetings, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an occasion or two to support the organization with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when launching all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reviewing his invective, carefully, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers 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 coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in public that did not tally with reality.

He says Rodgers' words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the criticism directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and improper."

Such an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Model Once More'

To return to happier days, they were tight, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was the figure who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile peace with the fans turned into a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, though.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, 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 called "agility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the club splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were angered. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to achieve success.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

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

The regular {gripes