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Just a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after a large part of his recent life was given over to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, here was a further illustration of how unusual situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not participate in club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reading Desmond's criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

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

He says his words "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

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

His Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

It was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

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

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his goals clashed with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish process Celtic went about their transfer business, the interminable waiting for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the organization spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having left - the manager demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

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

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be there and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was shedding the support of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes