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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he just missed an open goal. Do not worry finding a real picture of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a large, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Post it everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. And will you note that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and creates far more scoring opportunities. You run social media for a large outlet, raw interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy interview with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Just ensure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league right now? We need an answer now.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to withhold definitive judgment, to let layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to generate instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a square that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, fast racing car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the license to rampage but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this during the international break, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that Sesko had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are not alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with skin in the game is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately geared for controversy.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless sluice of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now basically material, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment 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, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, 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 necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like submitting a a report on a person who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star past his prime. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our phones, unable to detach from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience here.