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Picture this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't worry locating an actual photo of that miss; background information is the enemy. Now, include some goal stats in a big, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Share the image across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that several of the Dane's goals came against Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. You manage online for a large outlet, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content turns. Your next task is to sift through 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 Schmeichel prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Simply make sure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the title. People will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred periods to observe football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is closed. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, this period 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 reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, allowing technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to generate permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, context-free criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at Manchester United so far. The guy has started four times in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "The Sesko Debate", 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 season (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a big, fast racing car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to attack but also the freedom to fail. And in part this is why Manchester 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 load a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gap between the time and air he requires, and the time and air he is going to get.

There was an example of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart handily stated that the player had been judged – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially operating along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite sluice of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of playing in the center of it all, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about them is now essentially content, commodity, open-source property to be repackaged and exchanged.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a swing of judgment most clearly and cruelly glimpsed at this time of year, about a month after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, praising them, salivating over them. Now, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are already being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to worry about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres wise? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It feels appropriate that he meets their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the Premier League and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. Alexander Isak waste of money. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to inflect the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, something that happens in the background while we scroll through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt right now. But in a way, we're all losing something in this process.