How Unrecoverable Collapse Led to a Savage Separation for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Just fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a brief short communication, the bombshell arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

Through 551-words, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an unending circuit of appearances and the playing of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering things he has expressed lately, he has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such success and praise.

Will he give it up easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well reach out to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest shocking moment was the brutal way the shareholder described the former manager.

It was a full-blooded attempt at defamation, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal situations have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He never attend team AGMs, sending his offspring, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

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

It's exactly how he's wanted it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

Assuming Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that the shareholder is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He says his statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere 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 unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Strategy Again

Looking back to happier times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to no one other.

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

This marked the most divisive appointment, the return of the prodigal son for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have put it, the return of the shameless one, who left them in the lurch for another club.

Desmond had his back. Over time, the manager turned on the charm, achieved the wins and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters turned into a love-in again.

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

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless delay for prospects to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Even when the organization spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with one already having left - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent news conference he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? No, no, all are united, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a source associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, that was the implication of the article.

Supporters were angered. They now viewed him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

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

The regular {gripes