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Imagine the following: a happy the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't bother finding a real picture of him missing; context is your adversary. Now, add statistics in a big, silly font. Remember the emojis. Share it everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor will you note that four of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and generates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is your livelihood, United are the prime target, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to scan a lengthy interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Just make sure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn 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. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

Sesko 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 delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to produce instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a square that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. He has started four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 touches. What exactly are we analysing? And will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a big, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to attack but also the freedom 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 summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this during the international break, when a viral infographic handily informed us that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are not alone in this. 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 identical rules, an environment explicitly geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite sluice of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, commodity, public property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must always be generating the strong emotions. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those same players are now being dismissed as failures. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football itself, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, something that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our devices, unable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. It may be this player taking the hit at present. But in a way, we're all losing a part of the experience in this process.