🔗 Share this article

Merely a quarter of an hour after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

In 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

This individual he convinced to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the man he again turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was practically an secondary note.

Two decades 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 playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has said lately, O'Neill has been eager to secure a new position. He'll view this one as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking moment was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend team AGMs, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reading his criticism, carefully, one must question why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his statements "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

What an extraordinary allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

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

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who drew the criticism when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the return of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the fans turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the interminable waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "agility" in the transfer window. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would typically downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be there and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his directors did not back his plans to bring success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was clear the manager was shedding the backing of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes