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Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Now, place it with a dejected Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Do not worry finding an actual photo of that miss; background information is your adversary. Now, include statistics in a large, silly font. Remember some emoticons. Share it across all platforms.

Will you mention that Højlund's tally features strikes in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Of course not. Nor would you note that four of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and generates far more scoring opportunities. You run online for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of content turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy interview featuring Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". Just before, where he prefaces his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. No one wants that. Simply make sure "strange" and "Sesko" are paired in the headline. The audience will be furious.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred times to observe football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the season ahead are planting their flags. The summer market is shut. No one is talking about the quadruple yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. For while nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please a decision now.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The need to delay final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to mature. And the imperative to produce permanent verdicts, a constant stream of takes and jokes, context-free criticisms and meaningless comparisons, a puzzle that can never truly be solved.

It is not my aim to provide a substantive analysis of Sesko's time at United to date. The guy has been in the lineup four times in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, found the net twice, and taken a grand total of 116 touches. What precisely are we analysing? And will I attempt to duplicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "The Sesko Debate", in which two of England's leading pundits duel thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast racing car of a striker, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the license to rampage but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he needs, and the opportunity he is going to get.

We saw a case of this over the national team pause, when a viral infographic handily informed us that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a poll of 20 agents. Naturally, the press are not the only ones in this. Club channels, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly geared for provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to ourselves? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of playing in the middle of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about players is now essentially content, product, public property to be packaged and traded.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that continues to feed the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. But also, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and cruelly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting footballers, praising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being dismissed as failures. Is it time to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of their striker wise? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that he faces their rivals on the weekend: a team at once on a long unbeaten run at home in the Premier League and somehow in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like filing a a report on someone who went to the store half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Maybe we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and further hot takes. It may be Sesko bearing the brunt right now. But in a way, we're all sacrificing something here.