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Picture the following: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Now, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not bother finding an actual photo of that miss; context is the enemy. Then, include some goal stats in a large, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Post it everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And will you highlight that several 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. You run social media for a major brand, pure engagement is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of online material turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy interview with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, 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 "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. 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 also 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. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? We need a decision now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, allowing technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to generate instant definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, context-free condemnations and pointless comparisons, a square that can never 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 four times in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the freedom to rampage but also the freedom to miss. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most pitiless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the press are not the only ones in this. Club channels, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now basically operating along the identical rules, an ecosystem explicitly geared for controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of it all, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now basically material, product, public property to be repackaged and traded.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be generating the big feelings. However, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of judgment most clearly and cruelly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, praising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being disdained as failures. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he faces their rivals on Sunday: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at home in the Premier League and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker waste of money. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football itself, to influence the way we watch it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our phones, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. However, everyone is sacrificing a part of the experience in this process.