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Picture the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Now, place that with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, looking as if he just missed a sitter. Do not bother finding an actual photo of that miss; context is the enemy. Then, add statistics in a big, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share it everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count features strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Certainly not. Nor would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and generates far more chances. You run social media for a major brand, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply make sure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my favourite times to watch football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? We need a decision immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of opinions and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and pointless contrasts, a square that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at Manchester United to date. The guy has been in the lineup on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel passionately on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I loved watching Sesko at his former club: a big, screeching sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the freedom to rampage but also the freedom to miss. Partly this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is going to get.

We saw an example of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart conveniently stated that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the media are by no means alone in this. 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 aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem explicitly geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Separate from the essential weirdness of playing in the center of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now basically content, commodity, public property to be repackaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must always be producing the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most visibly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are now being disdained as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that he faces Liverpool on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on a person who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, an activity that happens in the background while we scroll through our phones, unable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player taking the hit at present. However, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience in this process.