The Way Unrecoverable Breakdown Resulted in a Savage Separation for Rodgers & Celtic

Just fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the announcement of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, from the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in obvious anger.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of Martin O'Neill was practically an after-thought.

Two decades after his departure from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an unending circuit of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

For now - and maybe for a time. Considering things he has said recently, O'Neill has been keen to get a new position. He'll view this one as the ultimate chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the moment.

All-out Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - however strange as it may be - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the harsh way Desmond described Rodgers.

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

For a person who values decorum and sets high importance in dealings being done with confidentiality, if not complete privacy, this was another illustration of how abnormal situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's dominant figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the important calls he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any open setting.

He does not attend team annual meetings, dispatching his son, Ross, instead. He rarely, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And still, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the club with confidential missives to news outlets, but no statement is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to get such a critical point?

Assuming the manager is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to ask why was the manager not removed?

Desmond has charged him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with the facts.

He claims his words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled animosity towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

What an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we speak.

'Rodgers' Aspirations Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, 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 Desmond who drew the heat when his comeback occurred, post-Postecoglou.

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

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the charm, delivered the wins and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a affectionate relationship again.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a point when Rodgers' ambition clashed with Celtic's business model, however.

It happened in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with bells on, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish process the team conducted their transfer business, the endless delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he called "flexibility" in the transfer window. Supporters agreed with him.

Despite the organization spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers pushed for more and more and, oftentimes, he did it in public.

He set a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then distanced himself. Upon questioning about his comments at his next news conference he would typically downplay it and almost contradict what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a story in a publication that purportedly came from a insider close to the organization. It claimed that the manager was harming Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

The fans were angered. They then saw him as similar to a martyr who might be carried out on his honor because his board members did not support his vision to achieve success.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. If there was a examination then we heard nothing further about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the support of the individuals in charge.

The frequent {gripes