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Picture the following: a happy the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Do not worry locating an actual photo of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a big, comical font. Remember some emoticons. Post it everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's tally features scores in the Champions League while his counterpart isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that four of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you run online for a major brand, pure engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is your sworn enemy.

So the cycle of content turns. The next job is to scan a lengthy podcast with the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one needs that. Simply make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. People will be furious.

The Season of Promise and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. The leaves swirl, winds shift, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are staking their claims. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, anything is possible.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to consume news on football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is resurgent. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? Please an answer now.

Sesko as The Prime Example

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of opinions and jokes, context-free condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be circled.

I do not propose to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. The guy has been in the lineup on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts argue passionately on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, screeching racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in about the time it takes to load 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.

We saw an example of this during the national team pause, when a viral chart handily informed us that the player had been deemed – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the press are not alone in this. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now basically operating along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately geared for controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless sluice of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the middle of this, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about players is now essentially content, commodity, open-source property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a major institution that must always be generating the big feelings. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, many of those same players are already being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Did Arsenal actually need their striker 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 league and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on a person who popped to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker an expensive flop. The coach losing his hair.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we view it, an whole competition reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our phones, incapable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, we're all losing something in this process.