Nearly forty eight hours since Brendan Rodgers resigned, and the hunt for a new manager is well under way.

Martin O’Neill is here for the time being, in a desperate attempt to inject some personality into Sean Maloney so that he can ascend to the position he’s been earmarked for, but judging by the first press conference, there’s a long way to go.

Maloney looked like anything  but a Celtic manager in the making, and attention must surely shift elsewhere.

John Kennedy has resigned as well, presumably after realising that he’s never going to get the top job, and this is significant because the board have yet to thank him for his service, which is the polite thing to do when someone decides to move on. Martin O’Neil mentioned him, but no one else has

“John Kennedy was just a young kid coming into the team when I was at Celtic. He played two games – Rangers and Barcelona then got that bad injury playing for Scotland. 

“He’s been part of Celtic for quite some considerable time. I wish him well.

“I haven’t had a chance to speak to him, those changes took place before I came in.”

Unless, of course, he had sided with Rodgers during what now appears to be little less than a civil war between the board and the management.

That much became apparent when Dermot Desmond, the largest shareholder, wrote a fairly angry farewell note regarding Brendan’s resignation, and by resigning Rodgers has forfeited the wages due to him under his contract, in itself a clear sign that there were major issues.

Brendan Rodgers has today tendered his resignation as manager of Celtic Football Club.

I want to acknowledge Brendan’s contribution across his two spells as Manager, during which he helped deliver success that forms part of the club’s modern history. However, I must also express my deep disappointment at the way the past several months have unfolded.

When we brought Brendan back to Celtic two years ago, it was done with complete trust and belief in his ability to lead the club into a new era of sustained success. Unfortunately, his conduct and communication in recent months have not reflected that trust.

In June, both Michael Nicholson and I expressed to Brendan that we were keen to offer him a contract extension, to reaffirm the club’s full backing and long-term commitment to him. He said he would need to think about it and revert. Yet in subsequent press conferences, Brendan implied that the club had made no commitment to offer him a contract. That was simply untrue.

We met with Brendan regularly, including in December last year and at the start of the summer, with regular dialogue in between, to discuss and agree our collective strategy, priorities, and approach. Every player signed and every player sold during his tenure was done so with Brendan’s full knowledge, approval, and endorsement. Any insinuation otherwise is absolutely false.

His later public statements about transfers and club operations came entirely out of the blue. At no point prior to those remarks had he raised any such concerns with me, Michael, or any member of the Board or executive team. In reality, he was given final say over all football matters and was consistently backed in the recruitment process — including record investment in players he personally identified and approved.

When his comments were made publicly, I sought to address them directly. Brendan and I met for over three hours at his home in Scotland to discuss the issue. Despite ample opportunity, he was unable to identify a single instance where the club had obstructed or failed to support him. The facts did not match his public narrative.

Regrettably, his words and actions since then have been divisive, misleading, and self-serving. They have contributed to a toxic atmosphere around the club and fuelled hostility towards members of the executive team and the Board. Some of the abuse directed at them, and at their families, has been entirely unwarranted and unacceptable.

Every member of the Board and executive team is deeply passionate about Celtic and acts at all times with professionalism, integrity, and a shared desire for success. What has failed recently was not due to our structure or model, but to one individual’s desire for self-preservation at the expense of others.

Celtic’s structure — where the manager oversees football, the Chief Executive manages operations, and the Board provides oversight — has served the club with great success for more than two decades. We all share the same ambition: to ensure Celtic’s continued success domestically and to achieve further progress in Europe. Every pound generated by the club is reinvested towards those goals and the continuous improvement of Celtic Football Club.

Celtic is greater than any one person. Our focus now is on restoring harmony, strengthening the squad, and continuing to build a club worthy of its values, traditions, and supporters.

Dermot Desmond

Rodgers has yet to reply, but when he does it might shed a little bit more light on what’s been going on, as the truth will be somewhere in the middle of the statements.

By itself, this looks like someone on the board has gone to Desmond with a few gripes, and Desmond, furious at having to get involved, hasn’t stopped to listen to both sides.

Curiously, it’s the largest shareholder who has dealt with the issue, and not the CEO, Michael Nicholson. Which would suggest he’s the one who has woken Desmond from his blissful ignorance.

The attack on Rodgers continued with this piece in the Daily Mail, which almost certainly wasn’t the idea of the reporter…

The world of ‘divisive and self-serving’ Brendan Rodgers: Proposing to new girlfriend in Times Square 68 days after divorce, ‘casual sexism’ – and a row over being a ‘neglectful’ landlord

All of this is old news, but someone somewhere felt it necessary to remind the supporters of Brendan’s character, maybe ahead of any response from the Irishman.

You can’t help but feel there’s more to come, if Desmond is still in a mood, then Nicholson could be next.

The AGM is on November 21, already delayed amidst rumours of some changes in the boardroom. Nicholsons absence from recent developments suggest he’s going as well.

There are probably more problems than even we thought behind the scenes at Celtic, and there may even be a few more surprises over the next few weeks.

In the meantime, the hoops host Falkirk tonight in a game that must be won. Falling further behind Hearts would be psychologically damaging to the team, and with a cup semi final at the weekend, O’Neil needs to hit the ground running.

He’s experienced and capable enough of getting a result out of the players, but if any uncertainty was to drag on, then it will start to bring it’s own problems..

Tonight is probably the the night for any anti board protests, especially if the ones we’re moaning about have already decided to go….

And let’s get someone in, before January, so we can start to plan properly for next season’s European qualifiers.

Though from the names already in the frame, McKenna of Ipswich, Keane of Ferencvaros and the obvious Ange Postecoglou, we should maybe hold out for a while.

Postecoglou would be ideal, at least the football was fun to watch, but we hear that he may well have burned his bridges when he left last time, so a return is pretty much out of the question.

Robbie Keane would not be the fans choice, for mostly political reasons, and Keiron McKenna, though a talent, would be a sort of Russell Martin appointment, in that he’s not ready for a big job in football just yet.

And the £5m compensation that would be demanded by Ipswich more or less knocks him out of the running.

On Monday, we pondered this…

Today..