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Imagine the following: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a dejected the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Don't worry finding an actual photo of him missing; context is your adversary. Then, add some goal stats in a big, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post the image across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. Nor will you highlight that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage online for a large outlet, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content spins. The next job is to scan a lengthy interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "strange". Just before, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply ensure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn 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 closed. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league right now? We need an answer immediately.

Sesko as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the imperative to generate instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless comparisons, a square that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. He has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we analysing? And do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw a case of this during the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently stated that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are not alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about players is now basically content, product, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a big club that must constantly be producing the big feelings. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, drooling over them. Now, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are already being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to worry about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football itself, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that happens in the background while we scroll through our devices, unable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing something here.