The Way Irretrievable Collapse Resulted in a Brutal Separation for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from the major shareholder, with clear signs in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being in their place. And the figure he once more turned to after the previous manager departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on things he has said lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the brutal way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated he.

For somebody who values decorum and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright privacy, here was another example of how abnormal situations have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

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

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on the manager on that day.

The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing Desmond's invective, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming the manager is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with the Club's Strategy Once More'

To return to better days, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, really, to no one other.

It was the figure who drew the heat when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

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

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the slow process the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the organization splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having left - the manager pushed for increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was playing a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly came from a source associated with the organization. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring success.

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

At that point it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes