The Way Irretrievable Breakdown Resulted in a Brutal Separation for Brendan Rodgers & Celtic

Merely fifteen minutes following the club issued the announcement of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a perfunctory short communication, the howitzer landed, courtesy of Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

In an extensive statement, key investor Dermot Desmond eviscerated his old chum.

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and needed putting back in a box. And the figure he once more relied on after the previous manager departed to another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his critique, the astonishing comeback of the former boss was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the organization, and after a large part of his latter years was dedicated to an continuous series of public speaking engagements and the playing of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a time. Considering comments he has said recently, he has been keen to secure another job. He'll see this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club could possibly make a call to contact Postecoglou, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the time being.

All-out Effort at Character Assassination

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

It was a forceful endeavor at character assassination, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," wrote he.

For a person who prizes decorum and sets high importance in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further illustration of how unusual situations have grown at the club.

Desmond, the club's dominant presence, operates in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the power to take all the important decisions he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club AGMs, dispatching his offspring, Ross, instead. He seldom, if ever, gives media talks about the team unless they're glowing in tone. And even then, he's reluctant to speak out.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with confidential messages to media organisations, but nothing is heard in the open.

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And that's exactly what he went against when going all-out attack on the manager on Monday.

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, you have to wonder why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If the manager 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 removed?

Desmond has charged him of spinning information in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He claims Rodgers' statements "played a part to a toxic atmosphere around the team and encouraged hostility towards members of the management and the board. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Legal representatives might be preparing as we discuss.

'Rodgers' Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Strategy Again

To return to happier days, they were close, the two men. The manager praised the shareholder at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected him and, really, to nobody else.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when Rodgers' returned happened, after the previous manager.

It was the most controversial hiring, the return of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as some other supporters would have described it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the lurch for Leicester.

Desmond had Rodgers' back. Over time, the manager employed the persuasion, achieved the wins and the honors, and an uneasy peace with the supporters turned into a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - always - going to be a moment when his ambition came in contact with the club's business model, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it happened again, with added intensity, recently. He spoke openly about the slow way the team went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for prospects to be secured, then not landed, as was too often the situation as far as he was believed.

Time and again he stated about the necessity for what he termed "agility" in the transfer window. Supporters concurred with him.

Despite the club splurged unprecedented sums of funds in a calendar year on the expensive one signing, the costly another player and the significant further acquisition - all of whom have performed well so far, with Idah since having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he expressed this in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his comments at his subsequent media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost contradict what he stated.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd say. It looked like Rodgers was engaging in a dangerous game.

A few months back there was a story in a newspaper that purportedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It said that Rodgers was harming Celtic with his public outbursts and that his true aim was managing his departure plan.

He desired not to be there and he was engineering his exit, that was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They now saw him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his honor because his board members wouldn't support his vision to achieve triumph.

This disclosure was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an investigation and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we learned no more about it.

By then it was plain the manager was shedding the backing of the individuals above him.

The regular {gripes