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Picture the following: a happy the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place that with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed an open goal. Don't worry finding a real picture of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, add statistics in a big, comical font. Remember the emojis. Share the image everywhere.

Would you mention that Højlund's goal count features scores in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. And would you highlight that four of the Dane'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. You manage online for a large outlet, raw interaction is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content turns. The next job is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he calls the signing of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he qualifies his comments by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. Nobody wants that. Just ensure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred times to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The summer market is closed. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. Right now, anything is possible.

However, for many of the same reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a crushing disappointment. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? We need a decision immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Benjamin Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, to let technical development and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to generate permanent definitive judgment, a conveyor belt of takes and memes, context-free criticisms and pointless comparisons, a square that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. The guy has started four times in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "The Sesko Debate", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be deemed successful this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching him at Leipzig: a big, fast racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the freedom to rampage but also the freedom to fail. And in part this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be right now: 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 time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw a case of this during the international break, when a viral chart conveniently stated that the player had been judged – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are by no means the only ones in such behavior. Club channels, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of pornbot followers: all parties with skin in the game is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards controversy.

The Psychological Toll

Endless scrolling and tapping. What are we doing 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 being a player in the middle of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that each aspect about them is now essentially content, product, public property to be repackaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a big club that must constantly be generating the big feelings. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of judgment most visibly and harshly observed at this season, about a month after the transfer market shut. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Now, only a handful of games later, many of those very players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the point of another expensive buy?

The Bigger Picture

It seems fitting that Sesko faces Liverpool on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten at home in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of feverish crisis, like submitting a a report on a person who went to the shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker an expensive flop. Arne Slot bald.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the narrative of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around talking points and immediate responses, something that occurs in the background while we scroll through our phones, unable to detach from the constant flow of opinions and further hot takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing something here.