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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Now, place that with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not bother finding an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Then, include statistics in a large, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Post it across all platforms.

Will you mention that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. And would you note that four of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates far more scoring opportunities. If you run social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of content spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy interview featuring Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred periods to watch football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new 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 multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although 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 right now? We need an answer immediately.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, to let layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to produce permanent definitive judgment, a conveyor belt of opinions and memes, context-free condemnations and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. He has started four times in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why 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 widest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this over the international break, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the press are by no means alone in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Separate from the essential weirdness of playing in the middle of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now essentially material, product, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that continues to feed the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring players, eulogising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at home in the Premier League and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Their star finished. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and reaction, something that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to detach from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, everyone is losing a part of the experience here.