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Imagine this: a happy the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he just missed a sitter. Do not worry finding an actual photo of him missing; context is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a big, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Post it everywhere.

Will you mention that Højlund's goal count features strikes in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. If you run online for a major brand, raw engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content spins. The next job is to sift through a 44-minute podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply make sure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the title. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. Nobody is talking about the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please a decision immediately.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player caught between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. 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 circled.

I do not propose to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. He has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a mere of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? And will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a big, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to fail. And in part this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this during the international break, when a widely shared infographic conveniently informed us that Sesko had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means alone in this. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately geared for controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless sluice of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of it all, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now basically material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the narrative, a big club that must always be generating the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this time of year, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, eulogising them, drooling over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko meets their rivals on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe 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 watch it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and reaction, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience here.