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Picture the following: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Don't bother locating a real picture of that miss; background information is your adversary. Now, add statistics in a large, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share it across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Certainly not. And would you note that several of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and creates far more chances. If you run online for a large outlet, raw engagement is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material turns. Your next task is to scan a 44-minute interview with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? We need a decision now.

Sesko as Patient Zero

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay 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 contrasts, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at United so far. He has started four times in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we analysing? And do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this year (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I loved watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching sports car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the license to attack but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why Manchester 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 gulf between the time and air he requires, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

We saw an example of this over the international break, when a viral chart handily informed us that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are not the only ones in this. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Do we realize, on any level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of it all, aware on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now basically material, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a big club that must always be generating the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most clearly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the point of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of feverish crisis, like filing a a report on someone who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our devices, unable to detach from the saline drip of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience in this process.