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Imagine the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Do not bother finding an actual photo of him missing; context is your adversary. Now, include some goal stats in a big, silly font. Remember the emojis. Post it across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. Nor will you note that four of the Dane's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and creates many more chances. You manage social media for a major brand, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of content spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. Nobody needs that. Simply make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite periods to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, everything is new and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. No one is talking about the quadruple yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is reborn. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league right now? Please an answer immediately.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to develop. And the demand to produce instant definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a square that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. He has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and had a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we evaluating? And will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at his former club: a big, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: 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 pitiless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this over the international break, when a viral chart conveniently stated that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a survey of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

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? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of this, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about players is now essentially content, product, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and cruelly observed at this time of year, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who went to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football itself, 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 constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience here.