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Picture the following: a happy the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Now, juxtapose that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, looking as if he just missed an open goal. Don't worry locating a real picture of that miss; background information is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a large, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share the image across all platforms.

Would you point out that Højlund's goal count features strikes in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. And will you note that four of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. You run online for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of online material spins. The next job is to scan a lengthy interview with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one wants that. Just ensure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the headline. People will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my favourite times to watch football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also 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 resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need an answer immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to withhold definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the demand to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and memes, context-free criticisms and pointless contrasts, a square that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United to date. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching him at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the freedom to attack but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why 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 widest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this over the international break, when a viral chart conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are not the only ones in such behavior. 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 same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to ourselves? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite sluice of aggravation is doing to our minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of this, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now essentially content, commodity, public property to be repackaged and exchanged.

And yes, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must always be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, eulogising them, drooling over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that he meets Liverpool on Sunday: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the league and yet in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Maybe 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 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 more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, we're all sacrificing something here.