How Unrecoverable Breakdown Led to a Savage Separation for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Merely a quarter of an hour following the club released the news of Brendan Rodgers' surprising departure via a perfunctory five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious anger.

In an extensive statement, key investor Desmond savaged his former ally.

The man he persuaded to join the club when Rangers were gaining ground in 2016 and needed putting in their place. And the man he again turned to after Ange Postecoglou departed to another club in the recent offseason.

So intense was the severity of Desmond's takedown, the jaw-dropping return of the former boss was almost an secondary note.

Two decades after his exit from the club, and after much of his latter years was given over to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at Celtic, Martin O'Neill is back in the dugout.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He will view this role as the ultimate chance, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and adulation.

Would he relinquish it readily? You wouldn't have thought so. The club might well reach out to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's return - however strange as it is - can be parked because the most significant shocking development was the harsh manner the shareholder described Rodgers.

This constituted a full-blooded endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as untrustful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; divisive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," wrote Desmond.

For somebody who prizes propriety and places great store in dealings being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was a further example of how abnormal situations have grown at Celtic.

The major figure, the club's dominant figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the individual with the power to make all the major calls he pleases without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He does not attend team annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to communicate.

He has been known on an rare moment to defend the organization with private messages to media organisations, but no statement is made in the open.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And it's just what he went against when launching all-out attack on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the team is that Rodgers stepped down, but reading his criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to get such a critical point?

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

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

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile atmosphere around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the directors. A portion of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and unacceptable."

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

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

To return to better times, they were tight, Dermot and Brendan. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him every chance. Rodgers respected him and, really, to nobody else.

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

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

Desmond had his support. Over time, Rodgers turned on the persuasion, delivered the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

There was always - always - going to be a point when his ambition came in contact with Celtic's business model, though.

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 interminable delay for targets to be secured, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. Supporters agreed with him.

Even when the organization spent record amounts of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well so far, with one already having departed - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he expressed this in openly.

He planted a controversy about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next news conference he would usually minimize it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly originated from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his real motivation was managing his departure plan.

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

The fans were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt Rodgers, which it accomplished. He demanded for an investigation and for the responsible individual to be removed. If there was a probe then we learned nothing further about it.

By then it was clear the manager was losing the support of the individuals above him.

The frequent {gripes