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Imagine the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he just missed an open goal. Don't worry locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a big, silly font. Remember the emojis. Share the image 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? Of course not. Nor will you highlight that four of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and creates many more chances. You manage online for a major brand, pure engagement is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. No one wants that. Simply make sure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my favourite times to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is closed. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league at this moment? We need an answer now.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to generate permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a big, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly 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 short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this during the international break, when a viral infographic handily stated that the player 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 press are not alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the identical rules, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of playing in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now basically material, product, public property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most visibly and harshly glimpsed 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, only a handful of games later, a lot of those same players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to worry about Jamie Gittens? 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 their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on someone who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football itself, to influence the way we view it, an whole competition reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to detach from the saline drip of takes and more takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt at present. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience here.