How Irretrievable Collapse Resulted in a Brutal Parting for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Just fifteen minutes following the club released the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell arrived, courtesy of the major shareholder, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager left for another club in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of Martin O'Neill was almost an secondary note.

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

For now - and maybe for a while. Considering comments he has expressed lately, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll see this one as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Would he give it up readily? It seems unlikely. Celtic might well make a call to sound out Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the harsh way the shareholder wrote of Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a branding of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-preservation at the cost of others," stated he.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in business being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, operates in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the important decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on Monday.

The directive from the team is that he stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, you have to wonder why did he permit it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says his words "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

What an remarkable allegation, indeed. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to nobody else.

This was the figure who drew the heat when his returned happened, after the previous manager.

This marked the most controversial hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who departed in the lurch for another club.

The shareholder had his back. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m Arne Engels, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that purportedly originated from a source close to the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his open criticisms and that his true aim was managing his exit strategy.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the implication of the story.

The fans were angered. They now viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his directors wouldn't back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes