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

Just fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph statement, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Based on comments he has expressed lately, he has been eager to secure a new position. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but O'Neill will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' moment was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

It was a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

The major figure, the organization's dominant figure, operates in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend club AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private missives to news outlets, but no statement is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's just what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he stepped down, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's guilty of, then it's fair to ask why was the coach not removed?

He has accused him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Once More'

To return to happier times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

It was the figure who took the heat when Rodgers' comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial appointment, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the fans became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's business model, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened again, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive one signing, the £9m another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one since having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It looked like he was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a insider close to the club. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm Rodgers, which it accomplished. 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 plain the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The frequent {gripes