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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't bother finding a real picture of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a big, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share the image across all platforms.

Will you mention that Højlund's goal count features scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates many more chances. You manage social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of online material spins. The next job is to scan a lengthy interview with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the title. People will be furious.

This Time of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite periods to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is closed. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are still in the game. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the top performer in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay definitive judgment, to let layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to generate permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free condemnations and pointless comparisons, a square that can never truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's time at United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I loved watching him at his former club: a big, screeching sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he requires, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw a case of this over the national team pause, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the media are by no means alone in this. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an ecosystem deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the center of it all, knowing on some surreal chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now basically material, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must always be producing the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been desiring footballers, eulogising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being disdained as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that Sesko meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the league and yet in their own situation of feverish crisis, like submitting a missing person’s report on a person who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Their star finished. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an whole competition repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, something that occurs in the background while we browse through our phones, unable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player taking the hit right now. However, we're all losing something here.