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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't worry finding an actual photo of that miss; context is your adversary. Then, add some goal stats in a big, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share it everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally features strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And will you note that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. If you run social media for a major brand, pure engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of online material spins. Your next task is to sift through a 44-minute podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "strange". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one wants that. Simply make sure "strange" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my favourite periods to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need a decision now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and strategic understanding to mature. And the imperative to produce instant verdicts, a conveyor belt of opinions and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless contrasts, a square that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United to date. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the Premier League 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 duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the freedom to attack but also the freedom to fail. 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 widest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

We saw an example of this over the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that Sesko had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the press are not the only ones in this. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, knowing on some surreal chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now basically material, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must always be producing the big feelings. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most visibly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are already being dismissed as failures. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he meets Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at home in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on a person who went to the shops half an hour ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, something that happens in the background while we scroll 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, we're all losing a part of the experience in this process.