Scottish football can provide more drama than any soap opera.
Brendan Rodgers’ sudden Celtic resignation on Monday night was a bombshell revelation – but the story was far from done there.
Martin O’Neill and Shaun Maloney were announced as his interim replacements, but in truth, this was overshadowed by an explosive statement by Dermot Desmond.
The statement called Rodgers’ actions ‘self-serving’ and ‘divisive’, and made it absolutely clear that Desmond and Rodgers’ relationship had been pushed to a breaking point.
And one BBC insider has now examined the situation, saying that lawyers could even get involved in the feud.
Inside Celtic boss Brendan Rodgers and Dermot Desmond’s fallout
Desmond’s statement pulled no punches and was scathing in its description of how Rodgers has behaved this season.
Without being defamatory, it was still pretty strong in its indication that Rodgers had lied.
And according to BBC Scotland’s Tom English, there could be lawyers mobilising after such an extraordinary piece of communications from Desmond.
He says: “The directive from the club is that Rodgers resigned, but reading Desmond’s invective, line by line, you have to wonder why did he allow it to get this far down the line?
“If Rodgers is guilty of all of the things that Desmond is claiming he’s guilty of, then it’s fair to ask why was the manager not removed?
“Desmond has accused him of spinning things in public that did not tally with reality. What an extraordinary charge, that is. Lawyers might be mobilising as we speak.
“Some will see him now as a victim, a sacrificial lamb, a man who had the bravery to speak up about the problems the club faced and who got driven out because of it. Silenced and humiliated by Desmond.
“It’s an interpretation with merit, but they were two parties involved in this break-up.
“Through his caustic words, Desmond has made it a vicious separation. We’ll get Rodgers’s riposte in time, but his era is over now. No coming back this time, not even a chance of a proper farewell. A sad, but inevitable conclusion.”
The Celtic board and Brendan Rodgers
Despite the constant noise from the outside, Rodgers insisted that he maintained a positive relationship with Desmond and CEO Michael Nicholson.
However, a leak to the Scottish Sun from a ‘senior figure’ at the club insisted that Rodgers was tearing the club apart with his divisiveness and ‘engineering his exit’.
Rodgers condemned the ‘cowardly action’ of the anonymous individual behind the leak. When pushed on whether he knew who it was, he simply said ‘no’…
It’s impossible to know for certain who it was behind the media briefing, but there are certainly parallels between it and Desmond’s statement on Monday.
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