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Picture the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Now, place that with a dejected the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Don't bother finding a real picture of that miss; context is your adversary. Then, include some goal stats in a large, comical font. Remember some emoticons. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates far more scoring opportunities. You run social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of content spins. Your next task is to scan a lengthy interview featuring Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one wants that. Simply ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my favourite periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? Please a decision now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless 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 to date. The guy has started four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? 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 passionately on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the freedom to attack but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is going to get.

We saw a case of this over the international break, when a widely shared infographic handily stated that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing 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, 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 environment deliberately geared for controversy.

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 minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now basically content, product, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most clearly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being disdained as failures. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at home in the Premier League and yet in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. The coach losing his hair.

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 discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit right now. But in a way, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience in this process.