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

Merely a quarter of an hour following Celtic released the news of Brendan Rodgers' shock departure via a brief five-paragraph statement, the howitzer arrived, from Dermot Desmond, with whiskers twitching in obvious fury.

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

The man he persuaded to come to the team when their rivals were gaining ground in that period and required being in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for Tottenham in the summer of 2023.

Such was the severity of Desmond's critique, the astonishing comeback of Martin O'Neill was almost an after-thought.

Two decades after his exit from the organization, and after much of his recent life was dedicated to an continuous circuit of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his past successes at the team, Martin O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

For now - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has said lately, he has been keen to get a new position. He'll see this role as the perfect chance, a present from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the place where he enjoyed such success and praise.

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 balm for the time being.

'Full-blooded Effort at Reputation Destruction'

O'Neill's return - however strange as it may be - can be set aside because the most significant shocking development was the harsh manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a forceful attempt at defamation, a labeling of Rodgers as deceitful, a source of untruths, a disseminator of misinformation; disruptive, deceptive and unjustifiable. "One individual's desire for self-preservation at the expense of everyone else," wrote Desmond.

For a person who prizes propriety and sets high importance in business being done with discretion, if not outright secrecy, this was another illustration of how abnormal things have grown at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful figure, moves in the background. The absentee totem, the one with the power to take all the major calls he pleases without having the obligation of explaining them in any open setting.

He never participate in club annual meetings, sending his offspring, Ross, in his place. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about Celtic unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

He has been known on an rare moment to support the club with confidential messages to news outlets, but no statement is made in public.

It's exactly how he's preferred it to remain. And that's exactly what he contradicted when going full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The official line from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reviewing his invective, line by line, you have to wonder why he permit it to get such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the accusations that the shareholder is claiming he's guilty of, then it is reasonable to ask why was the coach not removed?

Desmond has accused him of distorting things in public that were inconsistent with reality.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a toxic environment around the club and encouraged animosity towards individuals of the executive team and the board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been completely unwarranted and improper."

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

His Ambition Clashed with Celtic's Model Again

To return to better times, they were close, Dermot and Brendan. Rodgers lauded Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan respected Dermot and, truly, to no one other.

It was Desmond who drew the heat when his returned happened, post-Postecoglou.

This marked the most controversial appointment, the reappearance of the prodigal son for some supporters or, as other supporters would have put it, the return of the unapologetic figure, who departed in the difficulty for another club.

The shareholder had Rodgers' support. Gradually, the manager turned on the persuasion, achieved the victories and the trophies, and an uneasy peace with the supporters became a affectionate relationship once more.

It was inevitable - consistently - going to be a point when his ambition clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

This occurred in his initial tenure and it transpired once more, with added intensity, recently. Rodgers spoke openly about the slow way Celtic went about their player acquisitions, the interminable delay for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was concerned.

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

Despite the club spent unprecedented sums of funds in a twelve-month period on the £11m Arne Engels, the costly another player and the significant Auston Trusty - none of whom have cut it so far, with Idah already having departed - Rodgers demanded increased resources and, oftentimes, he did it in openly.

He set a bomb about a lack of cohesion inside the team and then distanced himself. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would typically downplay it and nearly contradict what he stated.

Internal issues? No, no, everybody is aligned, he'd claim. It appeared like he was playing a dangerous game.

Earlier this year there was a report in a publication that allegedly came from a insider associated with the organization. It claimed that Rodgers was harming the team with his public outbursts and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

He desired not to be present and he was engineering his way out, this was the tone of the story.

The fans were angered. They then viewed him as akin to a martyr who might be removed on his shield because his board members did not back his plans to bring triumph.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to harm him, which it accomplished. He called for an investigation and for the guilty person to be removed. Whether there was a examination then we learned nothing further about it.

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

The frequent {gripes