The Way Unrecoverable Collapse Led to a Savage Parting for Rodgers & Celtic

Merely fifteen minutes following Celtic issued the news of their manager's surprising departure via a perfunctory short statement, the bombshell landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

Through 551-words, key investor Dermot Desmond savaged his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to come to the club when their rivals were gaining ground in 2016 and required being in their place. 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 astonishing return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his departure from the club, and after a large part of his recent life was dedicated to an unending series of appearances and the performance of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and maybe for a while. Considering things he has said recently, he has been eager to get another job. He'll view this role as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a return to the environment where he experienced such glory and praise.

Will he give it up easily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club could possibly reach out to contact their ex-manager, but O'Neill will serve as a balm for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

O'Neill's reappearance - however strange as it is - can be set aside because the most significant 'wow!' development was the brutal manner the shareholder wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of him as untrustful, a perpetrator of falsehoods, a spreader of falsehoods; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "One individual's wish for self-interest at the cost of everyone else," stated Desmond.

For somebody who prizes decorum and places great store in business being done with discretion, if not outright privacy, here was a further example of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the margins. The absentee totem, the individual with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any public forum.

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

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

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

The official line from the team is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why did he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is culpable of all of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it is reasonable to ask why was the manager not dismissed?

He has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

'Rodgers' Aspirations Conflicted with Celtic's Model Again

Looking back to better days, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. The manager lauded the shareholder at all opportunities, thanked him every chance. Rodgers deferred to him and, truly, to nobody else.

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

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the returning hero for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' back. Gradually, the manager employed the charm, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired again, with added intensity, recently. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the case as far as he was concerned.

Repeatedly he stated about the need for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. The fans agreed with him.

Even when the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it to date, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, often, he did it in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside 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 stated.

Internal issues? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like he was engaging in a risky strategy.

Earlier this year there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a insider associated with the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the implication of the article.

Supporters were enraged. They now viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his honor because his board members did not back his plans to achieve triumph.

The leak was poisonous, naturally, and it was meant to hurt him, which it accomplished. He called for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a probe then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was plain the manager was losing the backing of the people above him.

The regular {gripes