The Way Unrecoverable Collapse Resulted in a Brutal Separation for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic

Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic released the announcement of their manager's surprising resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

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

This individual he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. Plus the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

Such was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his latter years was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to secure a new position. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? You wouldn't have thought so. Celtic might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the biggest shocking development was the brutal manner the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a disseminator of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the one with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not participate in club annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And still, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential missives to news outlets, but nothing is made in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he contradicted when going all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the team is that he resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get this far down the line?

Assuming Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that the shareholder is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to inquire why had been the manager not dismissed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in open forums that did not tally with reality.

He says his words "played a part to a toxic environment around the team and encouraged animosity towards members of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and improper."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with the Club's Strategy Again

To return to better days, they were close, the two men. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, expressed gratitude to him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, truly, to nobody else.

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance 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 lurch for another club.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the victories and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

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

This occurred in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He spoke openly about the sluggish way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with one since having departed - the manager demanded increased resources and, often, he expressed this 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 contradict what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a publication that purportedly originated from a source close to the club. It said that Rodgers was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his directors did not support his vision to bring success.

This disclosure was poisonous, of course, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a probe then we heard nothing further about it.

By then it was plain Rodgers was shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes