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Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't worry locating a real picture of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, include some goal stats in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share it everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that several of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. If you run social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is your livelihood, United are the prime target, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of online material spins. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one wants that. Just make sure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. People will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my favourite periods to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is shut. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player caught between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The need to withhold final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to generate instant definitive judgment, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, out-of-context criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to offer a substantive analysis of Sesko's stint at United so far. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What exactly are we evaluating? And will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the leeway to fail. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are handed down in about the time it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared infographic handily informed us that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the media are not alone in this. Team social media, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to ourselves? Do we realize, on any level, what this infinite sluice of aggravation is doing to our minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of this, aware on some surreal chain-reaction level that every single thing about them is now essentially material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must constantly be producing the big feelings. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being disdained as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of 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 at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the league and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like filing a missing person’s report on a person who went to the shops half an hour ago. Too open. Their star finished. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing something in this process.