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Imagine the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he just missed an open goal. Do not worry finding an actual photo of that miss; context is your adversary. Then, include some goal stats in a big, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share the image everywhere.

Will you point out that Højlund's tally includes scores in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. Nor will you highlight that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates many more scoring opportunities. If you manage online for a large outlet, raw engagement is your livelihood, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

So the wheel of online material spins. Your next task is to sift through a lengthy podcast featuring Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel qualifies his remarks by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, cut that. Nobody needs that. Simply make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. People will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my preferred times to watch football. Leaves fall, winds shift, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. 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 also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? Please a decision immediately.

Sesko as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, allowing technical development and strategic understanding to mature. And the demand to generate permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and jokes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. He has been in the lineup on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to duplicate the pundits' notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits argue thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this season (one pundit), 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 racing car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: afforded the license to attack but also the freedom to fail. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are handed down in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the largest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he requires, and the time and air he is going to get.

We saw an example of this during the international break, when a widely shared infographic conveniently informed us that the player had been deemed – by a wide margin – the worst signing of the summer transfer window by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are not the only ones in such behavior. Club channels, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this endless stream of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the inherent strangeness of being a player in the center of it all, aware on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about them is now essentially material, commodity, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a big club that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a temporary malaise, a swing of opinion most clearly and harshly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the transfer market shut. All summer long 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. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko faces 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 feverish crisis, like submitting a a report on a person who popped to the shops half an hour ago. Too open. Their star past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the narrative of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to inflect the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and immediate responses, an activity that happens in the background while we browse through our phones, incapable to detach from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt at present. However, everyone is losing something here.