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Picture this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place that with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Don't bother locating an actual photo of that miss; context is the enemy. Now, include statistics in a large, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share it everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that four of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates far more chances. If you run social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the title. People will be furious.

The Season of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred times to observe football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. Nobody is talking about the quadruple yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need an answer immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to produce permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, context-free condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits argue thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the license to attack but also the leeway to miss. Partly 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 about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this over the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently stated that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are not alone in such behavior. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an ecosystem deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless sluice of irritation is doing to our minds? Separate from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about players is now essentially content, product, public property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must always be producing the big feelings. However, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are now being dismissed as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the point of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a a report on someone who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the background while we scroll through our devices, incapable to detach from the saline drip of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps Sesko bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience here.