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Picture this: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't bother finding a real picture of him missing; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a big, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally features strikes in the Champions League while his counterpart does not compete in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and generates far more chances. If you run online for a large outlet, raw engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the wheel of online material turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. No one needs that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" appear together in the headline. The audience will be furious.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is talking about the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league right now? We need a decision now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and memes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at United to date. The guy has started four times in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and had a mere of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? And will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to fail. And in part this is why 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 watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

There was an example of this over the national team pause, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are by no means alone in this. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with skin in the game is now basically aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite sluice of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now essentially material, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a big club that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of judgment most visibly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been desiring players, praising them, drooling over them. Now, only a handful of games later, a lot of those very players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who went to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. The coach bald.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and reaction, something that happens in the background while we scroll through our phones, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit right now. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience here.