🔗 Share this article

Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed a sitter. Don't bother locating a real picture of that miss; context is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Share it across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor would you highlight that several of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates far more scoring opportunities. You manage social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of online material turns. Your next task is to sift through a 44-minute podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. No one needs that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need an answer immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype 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 mature. And the imperative to produce permanent definitive judgment, a conveyor belt of takes and memes, context-free condemnations and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. He has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? And will I attempt to replicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue passionately on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to fail. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in roughly the duration it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this over the national team pause, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are not the only ones in this. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless sluice of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now basically material, product, open-source property to be repackaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must always be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most clearly and harshly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, praising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he faces Liverpool on Sunday: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football itself, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we scroll through our devices, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. However, we're all sacrificing something in this process.