⚽️ Manchester United Stock Drops Off a Cliff as Glazers Hang On

Good morning. The Premier League really never stops. Even at the outset of an interminable international break, the league bubbles with stories and angles. Long live the Prem.

In the email today:

What has become of Manchester United? It ain’t glory anymore, we can tell you that much. It’s bad enough that they can’t attract the best players. Now they can’t even keep the shareholders happy.

• Manchester United's share price experienced its worst day ever, losing over £600 million in market value.

• This decline followed reports that the Glazer family intended to take the club off the market.

• The share price closed at $23.66 on Friday but plummeted to as low as $18.83 on Tuesday, ultimately closing at $19.35. The share price has fallen nearly 30 percent from its 12-month high in February.

• This drop of 18.22 percent in a single day marked the largest sell-off since Manchester United went public in 2012.

• The club's current market capitalization stands at £3 billion ($3.86 billion), which is only half of the Glazers' reported £6 billion asking price.

Our take: Money talks, and in this instance what the money is saying is “your club is miles behind Arsenal and won’t get to Manchester City’s level in the next 10 years.” Outraged fan videos and blog screeds are one thing. Smart investors rip-cording is a far more worrying sign.

2) 🔈️ EPL Lets Fans in on VAR Analysis

It used to be so simple. Referees made calls. They got them wrong. Everybody moved on. Now there’s VAR…and they STILL can’t get the calls right. This is progress? Anyway, the Prem is letting fans hear just how these VAR calls get made. Sort of like going to the sausage factory, we imagine.

• PGMOL (Professional Game Match Officials Limited) and the Premier League are introducing a program called "Match Officials: Mic'd Up" to allow fans to listen to discussions which took place between the VAR and the on-pitch referee during matches.

• This initiative follows a successful trial in May where Howard Webb, the chief refereeing officer, explained various incidents and shared discussions between match officials and VAR HQ in Stockley Park.

• Webb intends to regularly share VAR audio throughout the season, starting on a monthly basis.

• PGMOL aims to emphasize its commitment to transparency and openness, particularly since Webb recently assumed his supervisory role at the end of last year.

Our take: We are all about transparency here. But we’re not naive enough to think that fans will be satisfied with hearing how the on-pitch referee and the VAR many miles away contrived to screw their team. Fans whose team got the call will say “see, they got it right!” The opposing fans will say “they’re just covering their asses!” It’ll be great viewing for the neutrals and the officiating wonks, though.

3) ❌ of the Day: Liverpool Has to Be Sweating Al-Ittihad’s Determined Interest to Poach Mohamed Salah

This really is a very tough call for Liverpool. Salah has been integral to all of the club’s recent success, including a Champions League win. At some point, though, the money will be so compelling that keeping Salah would be penny-wise and pound-foolish.

4) 📊 Would you move to Saudi Arabia to work for 5x what you earn right now?

Have additional thoughts? Reply directly to this email to comment, and see if we include your response tomorrow.

5) 🔗 Link Roundup:

• 🇸🇦 Jordan Henderson is “hurt” by criticism of his move to the Saudi Pro League

• ⚽️ With proper management, losing your best player isn’t a death sentence in the Premier League

• 🔴 Stock price collapse or no, £64 million striker Rasmus Hojlund says it was only United for him

• ⬇️ Elsewhere at Old Trafford, Jadon Sancho is in no man’s land, with no path to playing time and no way out

• 😆 Here’s an entire article explaining why Arsenal won’t win the Premier League this season. It should have just read “because City will”

The newsletter today was written by Phil Keidel. Follow Phil on X @philkeidel.

Thanks for reading!