🔗 Share this article

Picture this: a smiling the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not worry finding an actual photo of that miss; background information is your adversary. Then, include statistics in a big, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share it across all platforms.

Will you mention that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Of course not. Nor will you note that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and generates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage social media for a major brand, pure engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content turns. The next job is to scan a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one wants that. Simply make sure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred times to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? We need a decision now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to generate instant verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless contrasts, a puzzle that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? And will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the license to rampage but also the freedom to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this during the national team pause, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are by no means alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem explicitly geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now basically material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most clearly and cruelly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, a lot of those same players are already being dismissed as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the league and somehow in their own situation of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to inflect the way we watch it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and reaction, something that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. Perhaps this player taking the hit right now. But in a way, everyone is losing a part of the experience in this process.