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Imagine this: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't bother locating an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Now, include some goal stats in a large, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post it across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor will you highlight that four of Højlund's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates many more chances. You run social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Simply make sure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred periods to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? We need an answer now.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to produce instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. He has been in the lineup 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 exactly are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue passionately on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this season (one pundit), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I loved watching him at his former club: a big, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the license to attack but also the leeway to fail. 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 load a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

There was an example of this over the international break, when a viral chart conveniently stated that the player had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. Naturally, the media are not the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with skin in the game is now basically aligned along the identical rules, an environment explicitly nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the essential weirdness of being a player in the middle of it all, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now essentially material, product, public property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are now being disdained as failures. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko faces their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Their star past his prime. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around talking points and reaction, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our phones, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt right now. However, we're all sacrificing something here.