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Picture this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a dejected the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Don't bother finding an actual photo of him missing; background information is your adversary. Then, add statistics in a large, comical font. Remember some emoticons. Share the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally features strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart does not compete in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more chances. If you manage social media for a major brand, raw interaction is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of online material spins. Your next task is to sift through a 44-minute interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he describes the signing of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Simply make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. People will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred times to observe football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, everything is new and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is shut. No one is talking about the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for many of the same reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a crushing disappointment. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league right now? Please a decision immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Benjamin Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to generate permanent verdicts, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free criticisms and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a in-depth evaluation of Sesko's stint at 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 grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to duplicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits argue passionately on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this year (one pundit), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko 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 leeway to miss. Partly this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the opportunity he is going to get.

There was a case of this during the international break, when a widely shared chart conveniently stated that Sesko had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. And of course, the media are not alone in this. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically operating along the identical rules, an ecosystem explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of it all, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that each aspect about players is now basically material, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the big feelings. However, partly this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of opinion most visibly and harshly observed at this season, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been desiring footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being disdained as failures. Should we start to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

The Bigger Picture

It feels appropriate that Sesko faces their rivals on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at home in the Premier League and somehow in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. The coach bald.

Perhaps 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 talking points and immediate responses, an activity that happens in the background while we scroll through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko taking the hit at present. However, we're all losing a part of the experience in this process.