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Picture this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Now, place it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Don't bother finding an actual photo of him missing; context is your adversary. Then, include statistics in a large, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Post the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor will you note that four of the Dane's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and generates far more chances. If you run social media for a large outlet, raw engagement is your livelihood, United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the wheel of online material spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast featuring Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" appear together in the headline. The audience will be furious.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite periods to watch football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please a decision immediately.

The Player 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 imperative to delay final conclusions, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at United to date. The guy has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits argue thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be a success this season (one pundit), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. And in part 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 roughly the duration it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was a case of this during the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently stated that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the media are not alone in this. Club channels, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of it all, knowing on some surreal butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now basically content, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must constantly be producing the big feelings. However, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most clearly and harshly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are already being disdained as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on a person who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to inflect the way we watch it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and immediate responses, something that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. Perhaps Sesko bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, we're all losing something here.