How Irretrievable Collapse Led to a Brutal Parting for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic

Merely fifteen minutes after Celtic released the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in apparent fury.

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

This individual he convinced to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. And the man he again relied on after the previous manager left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of his critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was given over to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get another job. He will see this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but O'Neill will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's wish for self-interest at the expense of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who values propriety and sets high importance in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the one with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He does not attend club annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, gives interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

There have been instances on an rare moment to support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going all-out attack on the manager on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his criticism, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager is guilty of every one of the things that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why had been the manager not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning information in open forums that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable charge, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

His Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Once More'

Looking back to better days, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, expressed gratitude to him every chance. Brendan deferred to him and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the criticism when Rodgers' returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who left them in the difficulty for Leicester.

The shareholder had his support. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy truce with the supporters became a love-in once more.

There was always - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' ambition came in contact with the club's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow process the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant further acquisition - none of whom have performed well so far, with one since having left - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the club and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and nearly reverse what he said.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was arranging his way out, that 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 did not support his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to harm him, 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 the manager was losing the support of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes