Sesko: Another Casualty of Soccer's Relentless Cycle of Opinions and Memes

Imagine the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Next, place that with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he just missed a sitter. Don't bother finding an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a big, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Certainly not. Nor will you note that several of Højlund's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and generates far more chances. You run online for a major brand, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of content turns. Your next task is to scan a 44-minute interview featuring Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one wants that. Simply make sure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is shut. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on 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 top performer in the league right now? Please a decision now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a square that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. He has started on four occasions in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a mere of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a big, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the freedom to attack but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space 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 widely shared chart conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of 20 agents. And of course, the media are not the only ones in this. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now basically content, commodity, public property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must always be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of opinion most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those same players are already being dismissed as failures. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the point of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces their rivals on the weekend: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own situation of feverish crisis, like filing a a report on a person who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, everyone is losing something in this process.