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Picture this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Do not worry locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, comical font. Remember the emojis. Post the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. And would you highlight that four of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you run social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. No one wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "Sesko" appear together in the title. People will be outraged.

This Time of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, all is possibility.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? We need a decision immediately.

Sesko as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless comparisons, a square that can never truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. The guy has been in the lineup on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? And do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a big, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the freedom to miss. Partly this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most pitiless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

There was a case of this during the national team pause, when a widely shared infographic conveniently stated that the player had been judged – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the press are by no means the only ones in this. Team social media, influencers, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now basically aligned along the identical rules, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless sluice of aggravation is doing to our brains? Separate from the essential weirdness of playing in the middle of it all, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now essentially content, product, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must constantly be generating the big feelings. However, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and harshly observed at this time of year, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, a lot of those very players are now being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that Sesko meets their rivals on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand 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 occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to detach from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt right now. But in a way, we're all losing a part of the experience here.