The Way Irretrievable Collapse Led to a Brutal Separation for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic FC

Just a quarter of an hour after the club released the news of their manager's shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

Through 551-words, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the team when Rangers were getting uppity in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is returned in the dugout.

Currently - and maybe for a time. Based on things he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to secure another job. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Would he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal things have become at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the major decisions he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in team AGMs, sending his son, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but nothing is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting information in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

What an remarkable charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to better days, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded Desmond at all opportunities, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

This marked the most divisive appointment, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other supporters would have described it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship once more.

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

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Despite the organization splurged record amounts of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost reverse what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, of course, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes