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Picture this: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he just missed a sitter. Don't bother locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a large, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post the image across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count features strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. And would you note that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates far more chances. If you run social media for a large outlet, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the wheel of content spins. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody needs that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? Please a decision now.

Sesko as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, context-free criticisms and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United to date. He has been in the lineup on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the license to rampage but also the leeway 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 handed down in about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this during the national team pause, when a viral infographic handily stated that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are by no means alone in such behavior. Club channels, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Separate from the essential weirdness of being a player in the middle of this, knowing on some surreal butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now essentially material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must constantly be generating the big feelings. However, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been desiring footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker wise? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he faces their rivals on Sunday: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on a person who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we view it, an whole competition reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to detach from the saline drip of takes and more takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. But in a way, we're all sacrificing something here.