Dermot Desmond didn't get to become a billionaire by navigating the financial world on instinct alone. So basic logic dictates that this shrewd businessman must have something grand and imaginative up his sleeve for Celtic

The clever money suggests he must have a strategy in place.

Dermot Desmond didn't amass a billion-pound fortune by improvising his way through the financial sector and stumbling into such extraordinary wealth.

So common sense would suggest that this shrewd Irish statistician must have something ambitious and creative planned for Celtic, the club he oversees from a distance despite holding just over a third of its shares.

Because the alternative, well, that doesn't add up at all.

It's too far-fetched to believe that the height of Desmond's strategic thinking was simply ringing Martin O'Neill and asking a fellow man in his seventies to temporarily manage things for him without any clear end date, reports the Daily Record.

And yet, almost precisely one year after making that urgent call to his old friend in the first place, that's exactly how the situation appears.

Let's be clear from the outset. O'Neill's legendary standing will remain intact and unshakeable whatever the immediate future may or may not bring for him and his present-day squad.

He came to Celtic's aid last season when Desmond was acting against its best interests, by launching a savage, brutal character assassination on a manager who had previously filled the Parkhead trophy cabinet.

Brendan Rodgers has yet to speak publicly about the unclear and puzzling circumstances surrounding his abrupt exit on 27 October last year. For whatever reason, he's remained tight-lipped, which is peculiar given how protective he typically is of his own standing.

His extended silence on the matter continues to raise eyebrows to this day.

The attack from Desmond was brutal and devastating. Rodgers was portrayed as a self-serving, divisive liar, and remarkably, this character assassination was carried out through the club's official channels.

Yet Rodgers chose not to defend himself.

The fact that his warnings about Desmond's ambitions for Celtic have since been proven correct may provide him with a degree of personal comfort and satisfaction.

However, it still doesn't clarify why he was willing to absorb such venomous, spiteful and potentially legally actionable attacks without responding.

Regardless, what's happened with Rodgers is now in the past. However, the problems that emerged from his exit twelve months ago continue to linger and remain unaddressed.

Desmond's hasty response was to bring in O'Neill, treating him like a temporary fix to patch things up.

O'Neill has discussed that first telephone conversation on numerous occasions, and just last week he reiterated that Desmond indicated his involvement would last anywhere from a fortnight to a couple of months.

Yet here we find ourselves. One year and one week down the line.

O'Neill - now shuffling towards his 75th birthday - continues in charge after successfully rescuing Celtic from the crisis that Desmond initiated, securing a league and Scottish Cup double.

Looking back, that ought to have been the ideal moment for him to step aside. Instead, it gave Desmond the chance to sit back and avoid taking any meaningful action regarding the club's long-term strategic vision.

This ongoing uncertainty is what's causing such bewilderment. If he genuinely has a roadmap for the club's future, he's keeping it firmly under wraps, and his lack of leadership has pushed the supporters perilously close to outright rebellion once more.

The loss at Falkirk on Sunday has poured further fuel on this mounting discontent.

However, the real explosion could occur within Celtic's own ground on Bonfire Night when Besiktas arrive for the next instalment of what has been, thus far, a disastrous Europa League campaign.

Should the well-funded Turkish side inflict the same damage on O'Neill's team that Ferencvaros, Benfica and Celta Vigo have already managed - by claiming all three points - then Scotland's title holders will be dismissed as the failures of UEFA's secondary competition.

Furthermore, if Ararat Armenia can secure even a single point against Portuguese second-tier side Torreense that same evening, Celtic could finish the week languishing at the bottom of a 36-team table in 36th position. Whatever the case, frustration, bitterness and humiliation threaten to erupt if O'Neill cannot halt the slide and devise a strategy to beat a Besiktas outfit that has already collected seven Europa League points from a possible nine.

He's contributed far too much to this football club over the past two decades or so to face hostility and ridicule from his own supporters.

Yet it's difficult to imagine any alternative outcome if his Celtic team - a thoroughly fragmented, disorganised group - once again fails to beat the odds by actually securing a European victory.

Therefore, the question must be posed again: what precisely is Desmond contemplating now that his old ally is hanging there, with the flames licking at his feet?

Even if he lacks some grand vision for Celtic's future, then surely, purely out of compassion, he would want to shield his old friend from the intense backlash that will inevitably follow another disappointing result.

It certainly appears as though O'Neill has exhausted the final reserves of goodwill that flooded in alongside his hasty appointment twelve months ago.

He has managed just three victories from his last ten matches, securing one draw against Dundee United while watching helplessly as his team has been methodically dismantled in the remaining seven.

When Wilfried Nancy suffered six defeats in his eight matches leading up to the new year, Desmond felt compelled to reach for his phone once more and press the speed dial. O'Neill, naturally, answered the call for a second time, and it was solely down to his sense of duty and his ability to galvanise, that Celtic ultimately managed to stagger over the finishing line with two trophies still in their grasp.

Yet all of this was achieved despite Desmond's short-sighted approach, rather than as a result of it.

So if the 76-year-old truly does have a strategy in place, then surely the moment has arrived for him to reveal his intentions. If not, he risks being accused not merely of letting down a football club, but also of betraying a close friend.