🔗 Share this article

Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic issued the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short communication, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

The man he convinced to come to the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

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

Currently - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect chance, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to take all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend team AGMs, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but nothing is heard in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, carefully, one must question why he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we discuss.

His Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

It was the figure who took the criticism when Rodgers' returned occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his support. Over time, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their transfer business, the interminable delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd say. It appeared like he was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source close to the club. It claimed that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes