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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Do not bother locating an actual photo of him missing; context is your adversary. Then, include some goal stats in a large, silly font. Remember the emojis. Share it across all platforms.

Will you mention that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Certainly not. And will you highlight that several of Højlund's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. You run online for a large outlet, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of content spins. The next job is to scan a 44-minute interview with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Simply ensure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite times to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

Sesko as Patient Zero

In many ways, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the imperative to produce instant definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be solved.

It is not my aim to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a mere of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? And will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most pitiless gap between the time and air he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw an example of this over the international break, when a widely shared infographic handily stated that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. Naturally, the media are by no means the only ones in this. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of it all, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially content, product, open-source property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must always be generating the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, drooling over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and immediate responses, something that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and further hot takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience in this process.