How Unrecoverable Collapse Led to a Brutal Parting for Rodgers & Celtic FC

Merely fifteen minutes after the club released the announcement of their manager's shock departure via a brief five-paragraph communication, the bombshell landed, courtesy of the major shareholder, with whiskers twitching in apparent anger.

Through an extensive statement, major shareholder Dermot Desmond eviscerated his former ally.

This individual he convinced to join the team when Rangers were gaining ground in that period and needed putting in their place. Plus the figure he again relied on after Ange Postecoglou left for another club in the summer of 2023.

So intense was the severity of his 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 latter years was given over to an unending series of public speaking engagements and the performance of all his old hits at the team, O'Neill is returned in the manager's seat.

Currently - and perhaps for a while. Based on comments he has expressed recently, he has been keen to get another job. He'll see this one as the perfect opportunity, a gift from the Celtic Gods, a homecoming to the environment where he experienced such glory and adulation.

Will he relinquish it easily? It seems unlikely. The club might well reach out to sound out their ex-manager, but the new appointment will serve as a soothing presence for the moment.

'Full-blooded Attempt at Character Assassination

The new manager's reappearance - as surreal as it is - can be parked because the most significant 'wow!' moment was the brutal manner Desmond wrote of the former manager.

This constituted a full-blooded attempt at character assassination, a labeling of him as deceitful, a perpetrator of untruths, a spreader of falsehoods; divisive, misleading and unacceptable. "A single person's desire for self-interest at the expense of others," stated Desmond.

For a person who values decorum and places great store in business being conducted with discretion, if not outright secrecy, here was a further example of how abnormal things have become at Celtic.

Desmond, the club's most powerful presence, moves in the margins. The remote leader, the individual with the authority to make all the important calls he wants without having the responsibility of explaining them in any public forum.

He never participate in team annual meetings, dispatching his son, his son, instead. He rarely, if ever, does interviews about the team unless they're hagiographic in tone. And still, he's slow to speak out.

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

This is precisely how he's preferred it to be. And it's just what he went against when launching full thermonuclear on Rodgers on that day.

The directive from the club is that he stepped down, but reviewing Desmond's criticism, line by line, one must question why he allow it to reach such a critical point?

If Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he's responsible for, then it's fair to inquire why was the coach not dismissed?

He has charged him of spinning things in open forums that were inconsistent with the facts.

He says Rodgers' statements "have contributed to a hostile atmosphere around the team and fuelled hostility towards individuals of the management and the directors. A portion of the criticism aimed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unjustified and unacceptable."

Such an remarkable allegation, indeed. Lawyers might be preparing as we discuss.

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

Looking back to better times, they were tight, the two men. The manager praised Desmond at every turn, thanked him whenever possible. Brendan deferred to him and, truly, to no one other.

This was Desmond who took the criticism when his returned occurred, after the previous manager.

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

Desmond had his back. Gradually, the manager employed the persuasion, delivered the wins and the trophies, and an fragile peace with the supporters became a love-in again.

There was always - always - going to be a moment when his goals clashed with the club's operational approach, however.

It happened in his first incarnation and it transpired again, with added intensity, over the last year. He publicly commented about the sluggish way Celtic conducted their player acquisitions, the endless waiting for targets to be landed, then not landed, as was frequently the situation as far as he was believed.

Repeatedly he spoke about the need for what he termed "flexibility" in the market. The fans concurred with him.

Even when the organization splurged record amounts of money in a calendar year on the £11m one signing, the costly another player and the £6m Auston Trusty - all of whom have performed well to date, with Idah since having left - Rodgers demanded more and more and, oftentimes, he expressed this in public.

He planted a controversy about a lack of cohesion within the club and then walked away. When asked about his comments at his next media briefing he would usually minimize it and almost reverse what he stated.

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

A few months back there was a report in a newspaper that allegedly came from a source associated with the club. It said that the manager was damaging Celtic with his open criticisms and that his true aim was orchestrating his exit strategy.

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

Supporters were enraged. They then viewed him as akin to a sacrificial figure who might be removed on his shield because his board members wouldn't back his plans to achieve success.

The leak was damaging, naturally, and it was intended to hurt him, which it did. He demanded for an inquiry and for the guilty person to be dismissed. Whether there was a examination then we heard no more about it.

At that point it was clear Rodgers was losing the backing of the people in charge.

The regular {gripes