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Imagine the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Do not worry finding an actual photo of him missing; background information is your adversary. Then, include statistics in a big, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share the image everywhere.

Will you mention that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. Nor would you highlight that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and generates many more chances. If you manage online for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content turns. The next job is to sift through a lengthy interview with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody wants that. Simply ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. Nobody is talking about the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my least favourite 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 major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need a decision immediately.

Sesko as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and jokes, context-free condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a square that can never truly be solved.

It is not my aim to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at United to date. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a big, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving 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 pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the opportunity he is going to get.

We saw an example of this during the national team pause, when a widely shared infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Do we realize, on any level, what this infinite sluice 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 a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now essentially content, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must always be generating the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are now being dismissed as failures. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that Sesko meets their rivals on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on a person who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. The coach bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football itself, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we scroll through our devices, unable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and more takes. Perhaps this player taking the hit at present. But in a way, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience here.