If it wasn't bad enough for Celtic caretaker manager Neil Lennon that his team was sensationally dumped out of the Scottish Cup semi final by Ross County on Saturday, he is now being sued by the Bank of Ireland to the tune of €3 million ($4.1 million) over a property deal gone wrong.

Lennon put a lot of money into the deal to build over 60 houses on a six-acre site in Dundalk, but the deal fell through after the Louth County Council did not grant planning permission. The company that was overseeing the project, Rocket Development, went bust in December.

The site, once worth €3 million ($4.1 million) has now devalued to about one-tenth of that sum, and the Bank of Ireland has started legal proceedings against Lennon.

Lennon has enough to worry about after the abject performance of his 'stars' against Ross County in the Cup.  The former Northern Ireland player did not hold back in his criticism of his players after the shock result.

''People talk about Tony (Mowbray, previous manager) not instilling passion in the team. Those are things you can't give the players. You can get them motivated and they'll pull the wool over your eyes. There was only one team out there who wanted to win, and that was Ross County. I'd like to congratulate them - they deserved it.

''Bottle, desire and hunger, you have to have that from a kid growing up. You have to love the game and want to play the game and want to win. We don't have enough winners.''

''Half of them never turned up . . . I'm sick of seeing our players fall over.

''I'm sick of seeing strikers not want to go in where it hurts and score a goal for the team. We've gone out of every competition with an absolute whimper.''

Lennon's chances of keeping the Celtic job on a full-time basis are slim after the defeat, and speculation on who will take over at the end of the season is rife, with Mark Hughes just one of the names being bandied around.