Celtic's incredible Brendan Rodgers v Dermot Desmond clash leaves big question ... when will we see you again

Well, at least it wasn’t the usual “mutual consent” method of concealing a combustible parting of ways. Celtic traded the usual forced civility that applies in such circumstances for scorched earth policy.

Never a Celt. Always a fraud. This condemnation seems almost quaint now, a faint jab to Brendan Rodgers’ fleshier parts rather than the haymaker to the nose represented by major shareholder Dermot Desmond’s trenchant kiss-off. The Green Brigade need to up their game.

Who would have thought that the most coruscating criticism of Rodgers would come from within. Who would have thought that the Northern Irishman would manage to find a more explosive way of leaving Celtic than the midnight flit to Leicester City that caused so much consternation seven years ago next February. Rodgers has been sent to Coventry - and then some - this time.

Brendan Rodgers left his position as Celtic manager on Monday night. | SNS Group

How Celtic fans will treat this latest parting of ways will be interesting. Given the antipathy towards the board, some will view Desmond’s intervention as further proof of a dysfunctional club with absent or at least ineffective leadership. One criticism of the Irish financier is that he has all the power and none of the responsibility. Monday night’s statement saw him take responsibility. It also shone a light on just how much Desmond is involved behind the scenes, with a recent three-hour summit meeting at Rodgers' home detailed. However, the statement also underlined the extent of the power he wields from a non-executive position.

Last seen in a public sense watching golf at the Ryder Cup, Desmond has delivered a more trenchant put-down than anything he might have heard the unpleasant American crowd direct at European golfers at Bethpage.

Of course, the extreme nature of his suspiciously well-crafted and icily-delivered statement, while being an utterly absorbing read, might serve to further alienate the supporters from the club’s top brass. It was hard to take it all in. Indeed, on first reading, it felt like it must be a spoof. Rodgers, the club’s most successful living manger, was being portrayed as self-serving and Machiavellian. Not a fraud but, essentially, a liar. Words like “untrue”, phrases such as “absolutely false” spill from Desmond’s pen. The club’s recent failure is put firmly at Rodgers’ door – “one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others”.

‘Our focus is now on restoring harmony’

Many fans won’t accept this, of course – the Green Brigade will still display those anti-board banners with a red line slashed through the faces of certain individuals at Wednesday night’s home game against Falkirk. A 73-year-old Martin O’Neill’s reappointment as an interim isn’t enough of a sop to ward off further, perhaps even more vociferous protests.

It does feel like Desmond is trying to deliver an easy way out for the Celtic hierarchy. Portray Rodgers as an illness needing rooted out. Everything will be better now. “Our focus is now on restoring harmony, strengthening the squad, and continuing to build a club worthy of its values, traditions and supporters,” Desmond concludes, as if Rodgers has been the sole obstacle to such desired conditions while winning four of the six domestic trophies on offer since returning on that notably low-key day in June 2023.

In the respect that Desmond implies he went out on a limb when re-recruiting Rodgers, he may have a valid grievance for feeling let down. There was a marked lack of elation when Rodgers came back, understandably so.

Celtic shareholder Dermot Desmond put out a blistering attack on Brendan Rodgers. | SNS Group

“See you in May,” he said, with his trademark chutzpah – and he came through on it. A double in his first season back. More recently, he stressed it was “200 per cent” certain he would see out his contract at Celtic Park. He hasn’t been able to come through on that. Was he pushed? Some contend he has been working his ticket since that 'coward' press conference, when he accused a club insider of briefing against him, following the Champions League exit to Kairat Almaty and subsequent goalless draw with Rangers in the last hours of a deflating transfer window that proved the last straw for so many supporters.

When will we see him again? When will he be back at Celtic Park? Rodgers’ initial success seemed to trash the notion that you should never go back. By going back, and crucially picking up where he left off by winning things and coming close to reaching the last eight of the Champions League, he seemed to have healed the rift that developed between him and a large section of fans.

It seemed likely that when he left again, probably at the end of his current contract, perhaps with another treble to his name, he would do so with acclaim ringing in his ears and with the unqualified good wishes of the board.

Instead, he leaves prematurely and with words like “toxic” attributed to his reign from the club’s most powerful figure. The team he led are now eight points, yes eight points, behind leaders, yes leaders, Hearts. And this isn’t even the most extraordinary aspect of the last few days in Scottish football.