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Picture the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not bother locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, add some goal stats in a large, silly font. Remember some emoticons. Share the image across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the Champions League while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more chances. If you manage social media for a major brand, pure engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content turns. The next job is to scan a 44-minute interview with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one needs that. Just ensure "strange" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. People will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my favourite times to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league at this moment? We need a decision immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, to let layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to generate instant verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, out-of-context criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", 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's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to fail. And in part this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are handed down in roughly the duration 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 judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the identical rules, an ecosystem explicitly nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of this, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about players is now essentially content, product, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a big club that must always be producing the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most clearly and harshly observed at this time of year, about a month after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been coveting players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very 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 wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko faces Liverpool on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star past his prime. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. Perhaps this player taking the hit at present. However, everyone is losing something here.