Champions League

MANCHESTER United are staring at a potential £110m black hole – just as Sir Jim Ratcliffe promises a bright new dawn.Ratcliffe is set to finally confirm his partial buy-out and take charge of United’s footballing future.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe is set to confirm his Man Utd takeoverCredit: PA
Man Utd are at risk of dropping out of the Champions League following a defeat to CopenhagenCredit: PA
But even before Britain’s richest man can nestle his backside in the Old Trafford directors’ box, he faces the prospect of his first three weeks at United determining the next three YEARS.
That is because Erik ten Hag’s side face a make or break Champions League spell which will have massive financial and morale implications.
And even for a multi-billionaire who cannot easily count his riches, the impact on what Ratcliffe could then do to get United back to where they want to be would be significant.
This week, exactly 12 months after Ratcliffe first publicly registered his interest in an Old Trafford takeover, he is set to finally complete a rather lesser-scale agreement.
Read More on Man Utd
United fans have grown increasingly restless as the drawn-out deal seems to have stalled approaching the finishing line, even if there are no indications of any genuine problems.
But the fans hoping that Ratcliffe’s arrival can transform the club after he paid £1.25bn for a 25 per cent stake and control over “football operations” may have to recalibrate their ambitions.
United’s horror defeat in Copenhagen before the international break leaves them perilously close to the brink of a humiliating Champions League group stage exit.
Bottom of their group with just two games to go, United must negotiate a trip to the infamous “Hell” of Galatasary’s Ali Sami Yen Stadium, scene of one of Sir Alex Ferguson’s most miserable European upsets 30 years ago.
Most read in Football
Man Utd face a huge loss if they crash out of the Champions LeagueCredit: Getty
Even victory in Istanbul would require United to get at least a draw when Harry Kane – the striker they were so desperate to sign but could not get – and his new Bayern Munich side come to Manchester next month.
While defeat in Turkey would leave them in danger of even missing out on the consolation prize of a place in the Europa League.

That nightmare would cost United an initial £13.5m – missing out on £8.35m for qualification plus £5m in gate receipts – and the chance of earning a potential £60m.
But it would also almost certainly end ANY chance of United being invited to play in the first incarnation of Fifa’s expanded Club World Cup, and a share of the likely £1bn cash pot, in 2025.
Europe has 12 slots in the 32 team tournament to be played in the USA, with Chelsea, Real Madrid, Manchester City and this season’s Champions League winners earning automatic berths.
The other eight European places will be determined by the four-season “coefficient” table.
While senior Fifa figures had indicated only one place per nation would be allowed from that list – to ensure eight countries had teams involved – that is now understood to be subject to a rethink.
A cap of two per nation is being considered, with a final decision due to be made by Fifa at next month’s Council meeting in Jeddah.
The Red Devils could miss out on a huge amount of incomeCredit: Getty
Such a change – which still ensures qualification on sporting merit – would open the door to United getting the chance for a likely £50m windfall.
Bayern and Liverpool are effectively safe, with Jose Mourinho’s Roma, Inter, PSG and Villarreal currently the next in line.
United are seventh but only one one win ahead of Leipzig, while Porto would leapfrog the Old Trafford side as well if they win their final two group games and United lose both.
If that happens, United could finish the season no higher than ninth and out of the frame for the USA, joining fellow European giants Juventus and – unless they win the Champions League this term – Barcelona on the sidelines.
Such a scenario demonstrates that even a man of Ratcliffe’s wealth cannot influence everything and that events on the pitch have an impact off it as well.
Between those two games, the likely first home match of the Ratcliffe era will see him sit down to watch the club he has invested in face the team he tried to buy in 2022, when Chelsea visit Old Trafford.
Rebuffed then – he finally made a bid AFTER the deal with the Todd Boehly-led syndicate had been agreed – revenge might be sweet. And more than important as United seek to get back into the top four race.
That is the expectation of supporters and the Ineos involvement has been given Fergie’s seal of approval, with the legendary ex-boss telling the Gambling Zone: “I am optimistic about Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s investment in United.
“I am still a director of the club and I know Jim well. We shall have to see what he does but I am optimistic.”
One problem for Ratcliffe, for all his promises of investment, are Uefa and Prem financial rules.
Aside from the issue over multi-club ownership, where Ineos’ control of unlikely French title contenders Nice could mean United not able to play in Europe, new regulations mean teams playing in Uefa competitions can only spend 80 per cent of their revenue on wages and transfers next season, dropping to 70 per cent by 2025-26.
Even in the Prem, sides not in European football will be limited to spending between 85 and 90 per cent of their revenues on an annual basis.
Missing out on substantial revenues that rivals in the Prem will be earning will make that necessary overhaul harder to pull off.
Meanwhile, this weekend, while United face the backlash of Everton indignation at their unprecedented ten-point deduction, City and Liverpool will be going head to head in a match that might prove pivotal in the title race.
The sort of match United, under Fergie, pretty much assumed would involve them. That all seems a long time ago. 
Man Utd face Everton this weekendCredit: AFP More

THE role of the third-choice goalkeeper has always seemed strange, looking in from the outside, and certainly not one to which Hugo Lloris has been accustomed.But that is, at best, what the World Cup winner has become at Tottenham, having been usurped by Guglielmo Vicario in the summer before snubbing various offers to leave.
Hugo Lloris is still part of the Tottenham squadCredit: AFP
The Frenchman is now Tottenham’s third-choice goalkeeperCredit: Getty
A legend for France with 145 caps and captain of Spurs for eight years, Lloris has been reduced to the forgotten man in North London.
Fans outside of N17 may be surprised to hear he is still a Spurs player at all.
Factually, he remains a part of Ange Postecoglou’s squad.
But in reality it would take a monumental injury crisis – and do not discount that at Tottenham right now – to see the veteran between the sticks for Tottenham again.
READ MORE IN FOOTBALL
He has not been included on a single team sheet this season.
Not even August’s League Cup defeat to Fulham where Fraser Forster was one of a number of changes Postecoglou made to his regular starting XI that night.
Lloris was only put in Spurs’ 25-man Premier League squad because he was surprisingly still at the club come the end of summer window, but Postecoglou had little intention of actually using the 36-year-old.
Lloris had an open and honest chat with his new manager when the Aussie took charge in June. 
Most read in Football
FREE BETS – BEST BETTING OFFERS AND BONUSES NEW CUSTOMERS
Lloris hasn’t played for Tottenham since the club’s 6-1 defeat to Newcastle in AprilCredit: Getty
The Frenchman expressed his desire to move on after 11 years at the club; Postecoglou was fine with that as he had plans to bring in a new No1 anyway, which turned out to be Italian Vicario from Empoli for £17million.
It was mutually agreed Lloris would skip the pre-season tour to Australia, Thailand and Singapore to focus on finding a new club.
But as the summer wore in, it looked increasingly likely that he might stay.
There was definite interest: by the end of the window, Lloris had two offers from Saudi Arabia, one from Lazio, another from Newcastle and finally, from boyhood club Nice.
He rejected the moves to Saudi, believed to be due to family reasons, as well as Rome and Tyneside as he did not want to be a back-up to a No1.
The offer of Nice seemed to be the perfect fit: it is where Lloris was born, his first club before he joined Lyon in 2008 and he had always signalled his intention to play for the Les Aiglons again before his career was out.
Yet he turned them down too, claiming the offer came too late on deadline day.
The stopper explained at the time: “The supporters (of Nice) and the team deserve better than a split-second decision based on a phone call without expectations or a clear sporting project with one hour until the closure of the window at a time where I wasn’t expecting it.”
So Lloris stayed put and continued to come into Spurs every day to train as professionally as he ever did.
Unlike predecessor Antonio Conte, Postecoglou does not put out-of-favour players in a ‘bomb squad’ to force them out of the club.
The Spurs boss explained earlier this month: “Unless a player expressly says to me or desires he wants to leave and I know his head space is somewhere else, I don’t see any reason to separate him from the group because they’re part of our football club.”
Postecoglou was answering a question from SunSport about Eric Dier, who too could have left in the summer, stayed and is now in the team following Micky van de Ven’s injury.
You cannot see that happening though with Lloris, who to his credit has not sulked at his situation.
If anything, he has been very helpful to the man who replaced him, Vicario, offering tips from his wealth of experience when the pair work together at the club’s Hotspur Way training ground.
Yet surely Lloris has more to offer than that, still four years shy of his 40th birthday, and the hope is he will move on in January.
Spurs were not asking for a fee in the summer and presumably would not now for a player whose deal is up in the summer. They certainly will not stand in his way of an exit.
Lloris’ last game for Spurs was the 6-1 horrorshow at Newcastle in April, when he came off injured at half-time with his side 5-0 down.
Read More on The Sun
Barring a shock, that will sadly be his last game for Tottenham, 446 on from his first back in 2012.
Yet the hope is that it will not be the final match of what has been an exemplary career.
Guglielmo Vicario has replaced Lloris as Tottenham’s No.1Credit: Getty More