How Irretrievable Collapse Led to a Savage Separation for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in apparent fury.

In an extensive statement, major shareholder Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were getting uppity in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the figure he once more relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the jaw-dropping comeback of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been eager to get a new position. He will view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such success and adulation.

Would he give it up readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Attempt at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh way the shareholder described the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a branding of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-preservation at the cost of everyone else," stated he.

For a person who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not complete secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

The major figure, the organization's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to take all the major decisions he pleases without having the obligation of justifying them in any public forum.

He does not participate in team AGMs, dispatching his son, Ross, in his place. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're hagiographic in nature. And even then, he's slow to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to defend the organization with confidential missives to media organisations, but nothing is made in public.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to remain. And it's exactly what he contradicted when launching full thermonuclear on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he resigned, but reading Desmond's invective, carefully, one must question why did he allow it to reach this far down the line?

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

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

He says his words "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the team and fuelled animosity towards members of the executive team and the directors. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Conflicted with the Club's Model Again

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 respected him and, truly, to no one other.

This was the figure who took the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the arrival of the shameless one, who left them in the difficulty for another club.

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the fans became a love-in once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a moment when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers publicly commented about the sluggish process Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then missed, as was too often the case as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the £9m Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having left - the manager pushed for more and more and, often, he expressed this in public.

He planted a bomb about a lack of cohesion within the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his remarks at his next news conference he would typically minimize it and nearly reverse what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, all are united, he'd claim. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a risky strategy.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a insider close to the club. It said that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be there and he was arranging his way out, this was the implication of the article.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't support his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to harm him, which it did. He called for an inquiry 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 shedding the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes