The Way Irretrievable Breakdown Led to a Brutal Parting for Rodgers & Celtic

Just fifteen minutes following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock resignation via a perfunctory five-paragraph communication, the howitzer landed, from Dermot Desmond, with clear signs in obvious fury.

Through an extensive statement, key investor Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he persuaded to join the club when their rivals were getting uppity in that period and required being back in a box. Plus the man he once more turned to after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the ferocity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Twenty years after his exit from the club, and after much of his recent life was given over to an continuous circuit of appearances and the playing of all his old hits at the team, Martin O'Neill is back in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to secure a new position. He will view this role as the ultimate opportunity, a gift from the club's legacy, a homecoming to the environment where he enjoyed such success and praise.

Would he relinquish it readily? It seems unlikely. The club might well make a call to contact their ex-manager, but the new appointment will act as a soothing presence for the time being.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Reputation Destruction'

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it may be - can be set aside because the biggest 'wow!' development was the harsh way Desmond wrote of Rodgers.

It was a forceful attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a source of falsehoods, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, misleading and unjustifiable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the cost of others," wrote he.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not complete privacy, here was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at the club.

Desmond, the organization's most powerful presence, moves in the background. The remote leader, the individual with the power to make all the important calls he wants without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never attend team annual meetings, dispatching his offspring, his son, instead. He seldom, if ever, does media talks about the team unless they're glowing in nature. And even then, he's reluctant to communicate.

There have been instances on an occasion or two to support the organization with private messages to news outlets, but no statement is heard in public.

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

The official line from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing his criticism, carefully, one must question why did he permit it to get this far down the line?

If Rodgers is culpable of every one of the accusations that Desmond is claiming he's guilty of, 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 reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "played a part to a hostile environment around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the executive team and the board. A portion of the abuse aimed at them, and at their loved ones, has been completely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an extraordinary allegation, that is. Lawyers might be preparing as we speak.

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

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

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

It was the most divisive hiring, the reappearance of the returning hero for a few or, as some other Celtic fans would have described it, the return of the shameless one, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, Rodgers employed the persuasion, achieved the victories and the honors, and an fragile truce with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - consistently - going to be a point when Rodgers' goals came in contact with Celtic's operational approach, though.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it happened once more, with bells on, over the last year. Rodgers spoke openly about the sluggish way the team conducted their transfer business, the interminable delay for prospects to be landed, then missed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

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

Even when the club spent unprecedented sums of money in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly Adam Idah and the £6m further acquisition - none of whom have cut it so far, with one already having left - the manager demanded more and more and, often, he did it in public.

He planted a bomb about a internal disunity inside the team and then walked away. Upon questioning about his remarks at his next media briefing he would usually downplay it and almost contradict what he said.

Lack of cohesion? Not at all, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like Rodgers was engaging in a risky game.

A few months back there was a report in a publication that allegedly originated from a source close to the club. It claimed that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his real motivation was orchestrating his departure plan.

He didn't want to be present and he was arranging his exit, this was the tone of the story.

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as similar to a sacrificial figure who might be carried out on his shield because his directors wouldn't back his vision to achieve triumph.

The leak was damaging, of course, and it was intended to hurt him, which it accomplished. He demanded 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 clear Rodgers was losing the support of the people above him.

The frequent {gripes