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Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Now, juxtapose that with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Do not bother finding an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post the image everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally features strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. And would you note that four of the Dane's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage online for a large outlet, pure engagement is your livelihood, United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of online material spins. Your next task is to sift through a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. No one wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. People will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The transfer window is shut. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? We need an answer now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, allowing technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free condemnations and pointless contrasts, a square that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to offer a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? And do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: 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 pitiless gulf between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is going to get.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared infographic handily informed us that the player had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are not the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of it all, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, commodity, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must always be generating the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum 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, salivating over them. Now, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko meets their rivals on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the league and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker waste of money. The coach bald.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, something that happens in the background while we browse through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and further hot takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, everyone is losing a part of the experience in this process.