Sesko: Another Casualty of Football's Relentless Cycle of Hot Takes and Internet Jokes

Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Now, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't bother finding an actual photo of that miss; context is your adversary. Then, add statistics in a large, comical font. Remember some emoticons. Post the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally includes scores in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and creates many more chances. You manage social media for a major brand, pure interaction is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of online material turns. Your next task is to sift through a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where Schmeichel qualifies his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply ensure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the headline. People will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The summer market is closed. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite 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. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? Please an answer now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a square that can not truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at United to date. He has been in the lineup on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 touches. What exactly are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this season (one pundit), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the freedom to attack but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this over the national team pause, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that the player had been judged – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are by no means alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Do we realize, on some level, what this endless sluice of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of it all, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most visibly and cruelly observed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been desiring footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being disdained as failures. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker 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 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on a person who popped to the store half an hour ago. Too open. Their star finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an whole competition reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we scroll through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, we're all losing a part of the experience in this process.