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Imagine the following: a smiling the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed an open goal. Don't bother locating a real picture of that miss; background information is the enemy. Then, include some goal stats in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post the image across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count includes strikes 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 Belarus and Greece, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage social media for a large outlet, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of online material turns. Your next task is to sift through a lengthy interview with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. Nobody wants that. Just make sure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my favourite times to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. No one is talking about the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? We need an answer immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, allowing technical development and strategic understanding to mature. And the imperative to generate permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless contrasts, a square that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the top flight in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? And will I attempt to replicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching him at his former club: a big, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to fail. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most pitiless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is going to get.

We saw a case of this over the national team pause, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of football representatives. Naturally, the media are not alone in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly geared for controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the essential weirdness of playing in the middle of it all, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about players is now basically content, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must always be generating the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are now being disdained as failures. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own situation of feverish crisis, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Their star past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to inflect the way we watch it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, everyone is losing something in this process.