TUESDAY night is the night when it will truly begin to hit home.The night when their Europa League final conquerors Tottenham kick off their Champions League campaign against Villarreal, shortly after Arsenal face Athletic Bilbao.Manchester United are getting used to life as a bottom-half clubShaun Brooks - CameraSport via Getty ImagesMan Utd boss Ruben Amorim has won only eight of 31 Premier League matchesMatt West/ShutterstockOn Wednesday, Chelsea visit Bayern Munich and bitter rivals Liverpool host Atletico Madrid.And then Newcastle welcome Barcelona to St James’ Park on Thursday night, while Manchester City offer a hero’s welcome to Kevin De Bruyne — as well as Rasmus Hojlund, who has already shown up Manchester United by scoring on his debut on loan at Napoli.There will be a six-pronged attack on Europe’s elite club event, with nine Premier League clubs in all competing on the Continent this season.And United will not be among them.For any United fans who find it too painful to tune in and have a look at what they could have won – had they defeated the worst Spurs team in half a century in Bilbao last May to qualify for the Champions League – the choice is clear.Midsomer Murders, The Great British Bake Off or Michael Portillo’s 200 Years of the Railways on BBC2, where a former Tory minister will drive a steam locomotive between Stockton and Darlington.This is life as a bottom-half club and United had better get used to it.The conkers have barely started falling and already Ruben Amorim’s team have only the FA Cup to play for this season.With no European football for just the second time in 32 years, with the humiliation of a League Cup exit at Grimsby and with only one last-gasp win at home to Burnley from four league matches, the season ahead already looks desolate.CASINO SPECIAL – BEST CASINO BONUSES FROM £10 DEPOSITSLike a has-been boxer opting to fight YouTubers for a payday, United are now considering playing midweek friendlies abroad in an attempt to boost finances.In Sunday’s Manchester derby, they were thoroughly outplayed by a City side undergoing a huge rebuild and were mightily lucky to escape the Etihad with only a 3-0 defeat. There, we found a delusional manager almost begging to be sacked, employing a rigid system which demands square pegs in round holes, with no goalkeeper of any serious pedigree and new signings already being dragged into a pit of mediocrity.Then came the natural conclusion to a spiral of misery — United fans used to taunt City about empty seats at the Etihad.After United were royally stuffed, their players were sent out towards the away end and forced to clap thousands of empty seats.A telling photograph of United’s hierarchy sinking into their cushioned seats as their team subsided, was doing the rounds on Sunday evening — Sir Jim Ratcliffe with his head in his hands, Sir Alex Ferguson gurning and the rest of them looking like hell-bound gargoyles on Gothic cathedrals.Amorim’s pig-headed refusal to realise his 3-4-2-1 system is a serious problem means Ratcliffe and his henchmen might soon have to shell out another £20million in compensation to pay off United’s latest failed management team.The Portuguese has won just eight of 31 league matches, with three against teams who have since been relegated.Players are not improvingGreat coaches improve good players. Amorim either bins them off in his ‘bomb squad’ or makes them worse by playing them out of position in a predictable formation which makes United too easy to play against.In Sunday’s brief, tetchy post-match press conference, he suggested United would have to sack him before his beloved structure is changed — leaving his best player Bruno Fernandes as a defensive liability rather than an attacking threat.Benjamin Sesko, the new £66m striker, looks lost and starved of service.Bryan Mbeumo is lively but squandering good chances, while Senne Lammens — left on the bench at City — is not even one of Belgium’s top four goalkeepers.His is the sort of signing you expect from a club which finished 15th last season and are 14th right now.With Chelsea on Saturday, United could soon be dragged into a relegation battle where, frankly, they belong.Still, chin up, lads. If the Champions League anthem is too difficult a listen, there’s always that chance to watch Portillo in 18th Century cosplay, chugging along a viaduct in a steam engine.