🔗 Share this article

Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Don't worry locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, add statistics in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post it everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally features scores in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in continental tournaments? Of course not. And would you highlight that several of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage social media for a major brand, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of content turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody wants that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the title. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

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. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league right now? Please a decision immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to produce instant verdicts, a conveyor belt of opinions and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless contrasts, a square that can not truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United to date. The guy has started on four occasions in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? And will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a big, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw a case of this during the international break, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that Sesko had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the press are not the only ones in this. Club channels, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically operating along the same principles, an ecosystem explicitly nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Separate from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, commodity, open-source property to be repackaged and exchanged.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting players, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are already being dismissed as failures. Is it time to worry about Jamie Gittens? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko meets Liverpool on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. 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 whole competition reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt at present. However, we're all losing a part of the experience in this process.