The fact that Nancy is now the first Celtic manager in history to lose his first two games. The reality that Thursday was only the second time in history that Celtic conceded three first-half goals at home in Europe.
The uneasy truth that Liam Scales’ own goal was the earliest concession in a European game at Celtic in more than a decade.
These are not the kind of records that Nancy came here to set. The brutal realities of life as a Celtic manager have descended on his head in double-quick time.
The crumbs of comfort wouldn’t feed a sparrow right now. They amount to Celtic not having caved in and conceded more goals in the second half against Roma. Nancy did his best to feast on that in the aftermath.
Has psychological damage been done this past week? You argue that it has. Do Celtic look confused on the pitch? Yes, again. Will Nancy go back to basics on Sunday? Unlikely. Are Celtic fans more worried now about the League Cup final than they were a little over a week ago? In the case of some or many, undoubtedly.
Nancy was subjected to an awful lot of garbage in the wake of Tynecastle, as if his tactics board was an affront to football, as if his perfectly normal trainers made him any less capable of doing his job.
The one truth about managing Celtic, or any other team with high demands, is that, if you are a winning manager, you can turn up in a tutu. Nobody would care. If anything, it would spark a trend – if you’re winning.
Now that he’s off to a losing start, the doubt is out there, the feeling that maybe Celtic should have stuck with O’Neill for a while longer or that, perhaps, it was a bit reckless to give control of the team to a manager with little experience and no exposure to the kind of suffocating heat of a Glasgow giant.
Again, it’s not just the losses that might be making some Celtic fans gulp. It’s the rapid reimagining of O’Neill’s team and the disintegration of the organisation that had been created.
We can make too much of what O’Neill achieved – his side weren’t always easy on the eye in his brief second spell – but they won all bar one game. They toiled badly at times, but they got the job done, they triumphed on the road in Europe, which is something Celtic rarely do.
Nancy has gone to three at the back, and with three left-footers, which is something that Derek McInnes gorged on at Tynecastle. He has tried to reinvent a left winger, Yang Hyun-Jun, into a right wing-back – and it hasn’t worked. He’s tried to recast Sebastian Tounekti, a left winger, into a left wing-back. That hasn’t worked either.
Nancy doesn’t seem to think that these changes are a big deal, but the demeanour of his team suggests otherwise. Against Roma, and at times against Hearts, they looked like a ship that’s been taken off course due to choppy waters.