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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not bother locating an actual photo of that miss; context is your adversary. Then, add statistics in a big, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post it everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor would you highlight that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Slovenia and generates far more chances. You manage online for a large outlet, raw interaction is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of content turns. Your next task is to scan a 44-minute interview with the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody wants that. Simply ensure "weird" and "the player" appear together in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is talking about the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has also been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? 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 opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, allowing technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free condemnations and meaningless contrasts, a square that can never truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's stint at Manchester 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 seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue passionately on a podcast over whether Sesko needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given 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 at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in roughly the duration 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 opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this over the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently stated that the player had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the press are not alone in such behavior. Club channels, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of fake followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of playing in the middle of it all, knowing on a bizarre butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now essentially material, product, open-source property to be repackaged and exchanged.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the narrative, a big club that must always be producing the strong emotions. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are already being disdained as failures. Should we start to worry about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that he faces their rivals on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. The coach bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to inflect the way we watch it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to detach from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing something in this process.