How Irretrievable Breakdown Resulted in a Savage Parting for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic FC

Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a brief five-paragraph communication, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Desmond savaged his old chum.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. And the man he again turned to after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

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

Would he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic could possibly make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who values propriety and places great store in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how unusual situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the major decisions he pleases without having the responsibility of justifying them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the club with private missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's wanted it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

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

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

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

He claims Rodgers' words "played a part to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity 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, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Once More'

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, the two men. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

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

This marked the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the lurch for Leicester.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when his goals came in contact with the club's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish process the team went about their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Despite the club spent record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually downplay it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was playing a risky game.

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider close to the club. It said that the manager was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They then saw him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If 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 regular {gripes