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Picture the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Next, juxtapose it with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Do not bother locating an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in continental tournaments? Certainly not. And would you highlight that several of the Dane's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and generates many more chances. If you manage online for a large outlet, raw interaction is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material spins. The next job is to sift through a 44-minute podcast with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he prefaces his remarks 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 title. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has long been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while 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 best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer immediately.

Sesko as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to produce instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free criticisms and pointless contrasts, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this over the national team pause, when a widely shared infographic handily stated that the player had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means alone in this. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now basically aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem explicitly 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 minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of it all, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, product, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most visibly and harshly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are now being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces their rivals 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 a report on a person who popped to the store half an hour ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and reaction, something that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our phones, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. However, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience here.