Benjamin Sesko: The Latest Victim of Soccer's Unforgiving Conveyor Belt of Opinions and Memes

Imagine the following: a smiling the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose that with a dejected Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Do not bother locating a real picture of that miss; background information is your adversary. Then, add some goal stats in a large, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Certainly not. And will you note that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates many more scoring opportunities. You run social media for a major brand, raw interaction is your livelihood, United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of online material spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he qualifies his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one needs that. Just make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. People will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please an answer immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of opinions and jokes, context-free condemnations and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we analysing? And will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel 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 Sesko at his former club: a big, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the license to rampage but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in roughly the duration it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this during the national team pause, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a poll 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 skin in the game is now basically operating along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite sluice of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of it all, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially content, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most visibly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko meets their rivals on the weekend: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. The striker waste of money. The coach bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we scroll through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience in this process.