The Way Irretrievable Breakdown Led to a Brutal Separation for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic

Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory short statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and required being back in a box. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's takedown, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous series of appearances and the performance of all his past successes at Celtic, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Considering comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure another job. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a present from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. Celtic could possibly reach out to contact Postecoglou, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's return - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the biggest 'wow!' development was the brutal way the shareholder described Rodgers.

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

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being conducted with confidentiality, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how unusual things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in club AGMs, sending his offspring, his son, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an occasion or two to defend the organization with private missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

It's exactly how he's wanted it to be. And it's just what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

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

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is alleging he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why had been the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the management and the board. Some of the criticism directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary charge, indeed. Legal representatives might be mobilising as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with the Club's Model Once More'

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to Dermot and, really, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when Rodgers' comeback occurred, after the previous manager.

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship again.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his goals 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. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the case as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the market. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the expensive Arne Engels, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have cut it to date, with one already having departed - Rodgers pushed for increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then walked away. When asked about his remarks at his subsequent media briefing he would typically minimize it and almost reverse what he said.

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

Earlier this year there was a story in a newspaper that allegedly originated from a insider close to the organization. It said that the manager was damaging the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not back his vision to bring triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm Rodgers, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be dismissed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain Rodgers was losing the backing of the individuals in charge.

The regular {gripes