Imagine the following: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a dejected the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Do not bother locating an actual photo of him missing; context is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, silly font. Remember the emojis. Post the image everywhere.
Would you point out that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And would you highlight that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates many more chances. If you manage social media for a large outlet, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.
So the cycle of content spins. The next job is to scan a lengthy interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "strange". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply ensure "strange" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. People will be outraged.
The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment
The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the coming months are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.
However, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please a decision immediately.
The Player as Patient Zero
In many ways, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the demand to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and jokes, context-free criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.
I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United to date. He has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? And will I attempt to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).
A Cruel Environment
Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, fast racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the time and air he is likely to receive.
There was a case of this over the national team pause, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that the player had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the press are not the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards controversy.
The Mental Cost
Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the center of this, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now basically material, commodity, open-source property to be repackaged and exchanged.
And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the point of Randal Kolo Muani?
The Bigger Picture
It feels appropriate that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a a report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker waste of money. The coach losing his hair.
Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football itself, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, we're all losing a part of the experience here.
