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Picture the following: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Do not bother locating an actual photo of that miss; context is your adversary. Now, include statistics in a big, comical font. Don't forget the emojis. Share it across all platforms.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally features scores in the Champions League while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. Nor would you note that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and creates many more chances. You run social media for a major brand, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the prime target, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material turns. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. Nobody needs that. Simply ensure "strange" and "the player" appear together in the headline. People will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my favourite times to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The summer market is shut. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my least favourite times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is reborn. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

The Player as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, allowing technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be circled.

I do not propose to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at United to date. He has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and had a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? And do I propose to replicate 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 podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at Leipzig: a powerful, screeching racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: afforded the freedom to attack but also the freedom to miss. Partly this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are handed down in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most pitiless gulf between the time and air 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 Sesko had been judged – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. Naturally, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Team social media, online personalities, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now basically operating along the identical rules, an environment deliberately geared for provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What is happening to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of this, knowing on some surreal butterfly-effect level that each aspect about them is now basically material, product, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because United are United, the entity that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of judgment most clearly and cruelly observed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been desiring players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those same players are already being disdained as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need their striker necessary? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that he faces their rivals on Sunday: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Their star past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football itself, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. However, we're all sacrificing a part of the experience here.