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Picture the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Do not bother finding an actual photo of that miss; background information is your adversary. Then, add statistics in a big, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in continental tournaments? Of course not. And would you note that several of the Dane's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates far more scoring opportunities. If you run online for a large outlet, raw interaction is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material spins. The next job is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". Just before, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one wants that. Simply make sure "weird" and "the player" appear together in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the coming months are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. No one is talking about the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has long been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? Please an answer now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the imperative to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless contrasts, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. He has been in the lineup four times in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? And will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a podcast over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (one pundit), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the freedom to attack but also the freedom 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 summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw a case of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart conveniently stated that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite sluice of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now basically material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must always be producing the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most visibly and cruelly observed at this time of year, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, praising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a a report on a person who popped to the store half an hour ago. Too open. Their star finished. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline 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 immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the backdrop while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit right now. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience in this process.