Those in the stands at Old Trafford on Tuesday night would be forgiven for feeling that, for a rare occasion, the nation’s attention is not focused on Manchester United. A quirk of the expanded Champions League format means that as Erik ten Hag’s team enter the Carabao Cup, most people with an interest in football will instead be focused on the start of Europe’s premier competition.

The identity of the visitors to Sir Matt Busby Way highlights the gulf between United’s current status and where they would like to be. Barnsley are a storied club founded in 1887 but currently sit seventh in League One, some 41 places below United in the English table. They are the opponents on the same night that Liverpool, United’s great rivals on the East Lancs Road, are in Italy to take on AC Milan.

That game at San Siro is the kind of match that fuels United’s FOMO. Not just the fear of missing out on the glamorous ties that get the blood pumping, but also the fear of missing out on the financial rewards that come with them. Manchester City earned €134.9m (£113.6m; $150m) by winning the Champions League in 2022-23, while Sevilla, who won the Europa League that season, raked in €21.8m.

United raised the most money of any club in the Europa League two years ago, reaching the quarter-finals and collecting €32.6m, benefiting from the highest coefficient ranking and a substantial amount from the market pool, which takes into account the value of each competition’s domestic TV rights. But that’s still a huge amount less than what clubs in the Champions League can earn.

Given that United last week reported a £113.2m loss and a tightrope walk with Premier League and UEFA spending rules, a return to Europe’s top table seems vital to the prospects of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s investment. Barnsley’s arrival at Old Trafford as the Champions League anthem reverberates across the continent offers a sobering reminder of that.

Of course, football should be more about emotion than economics and a domestic cup match can be a lot of fun if there is drama. But it also requires an element of danger and the only way that happens against a League One opponent is if United go behind, which would not be Ten Hag’s idea of ​​fun.

That said, it seems that enough fans feel the game is worthy of a night under the floodlights to generate a sell-out. Sales have been slower than usual, with the club relaxing its rules on passing on season tickets to ensure there are people in the seats, but over 70,000 had been sold by the end of last week, meaning it’s time for the last few thousand to go.

In fact, those in attendance would probably tell you they’d rather welcome Barcelona than Barnsley. Perhaps even Slovan Bratislava, City’s Champions League opponents on October 1. Juventus, Bayern Munich and Real Madrid all kick off their European campaigns at the same time as Darrell Clarke is giving his Barnsley players his team talk.

The new 36-team format of the Champions League means that not all matches are glamorous trips, with Aston Villa starting at Young Boys, for example. But there is an undercurrent of prestige that United want to add their name to. The Carabao Cup, a trophy Ten Hag proudly won in his first season in England, does little to fuel that ambition, so the question is how seriously the United manager is approaching the competition.

He has expressed concern about the fixture list, which is increasingly hectic this year as each club in the Champions League and Europa League plays two extra guaranteed games, and has stated on more than one occasion that modern football is “survival of the fittest”. But he also knows that silverware is important. The FA Cup effectively saved his job, although it also came with Europa League entry and extra revenue that made the summer transfer window more manageable.

Ten Hag has a tendency to stay strong in the Carabao Cup, although it is a trick of the mind to think he makes no changes. For the visit of Crystal Palace at the same stage last season, he changed seven players from the previous Premier League line-up. He wants to retain the opportunity to tweak his selections throughout the campaign, given last season was a need-must situation due to injuries.

“We are aiming for a trophy, this is an opportunity, so we are taking it seriously,” Ten Hag said on Monday. “I hope I have a headache, because last year I had a headache too, but there were no players available. I hope there are a lot of players available, so I make selections from game to game. It is not just about the starting XI. It is a nice headache.”

Next week it is the turn of the English Champions League clubs to compete in the Carabao Cup, so in a way the Barnsley comparison is unfortunate timing. Nevertheless, progress is essential to avoid the wrong kind of headache and then the energies will be channelled into ensuring United are part of the action the next time the Champions League kicks off.

(Top photo: James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images)