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Picture this: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose that with a dejected the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he just missed a sitter. Don't worry locating an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Then, add statistics in a big, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share the image everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko does not compete in Europe? Of course not. And will you note that several of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you run online for a major brand, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of online material turns. The next job is to scan a 44-minute podcast with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies 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 most disliked times to read about football. For while nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped 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 produce instant definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and memes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at United to date. He has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a mere 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 famous analysts argue passionately on a podcast over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the freedom to fail. And in part this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this over the international break, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that the player had been deemed – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. And of course, the media are by no means alone in this. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of playing in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now essentially content, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and harshly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Now, only a handful of games later, a lot of those very players are now being dismissed as failures. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that Sesko faces their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on a person who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the backdrop while we scroll through our phones, incapable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is sacrificing something here.