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Imagine the following: a smiling the Danish striker in a Napoli shirt. Next, place that with a dejected the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't bother finding a real picture of that miss; background information is the enemy. Now, include statistics in a large, silly font. Don't forget some emoticons. Post it across all platforms.

Will you point out that Højlund's goal count includes scores in the premier European competition while Sesko isn't playing in continental tournaments? Certainly not. Nor will you highlight that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus Belarus and Greece, or that Denmark is far superior to Slovenia and generates many more chances. If you manage online for a large outlet, pure engagement is your livelihood, Manchester United are the prime target, and nuance is the thing to avoid.

Thus the cycle of content spins. The next job is to sift through a lengthy podcast with Peter Schmeichel and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "weird". There's a bit, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, remove that part. No one needs that. Just make sure "strange" and "the player" are paired in the title. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Premature Judgment

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred periods to watch football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, everything is new and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is mentioning the quadruple yet. All teams are in contention. Right now, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, mid-autumn has also been one of my least favourite times to consume news on football. Because although no outcomes are decided, opinions must be formed immediately. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league at this moment? We need a decision immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, unavoidable forces. The need to withhold definitive judgment, allowing layers of technical texture and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to generate permanent verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and memes, context-free criticisms and meaningless contrasts, a square that can not truly be solved.

It is not my aim to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's stint at United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, found the net twice, and taken a mere of 116 touches. What precisely are we evaluating? And will I attempt to replicate the pundits' notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a popular show over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this year (Neville), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

For all this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast racing car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his abilities: given the license to rampage but also the freedom to fail. Partly this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be right now: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the time and air he needs, and the time and air he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a viral chart handily stated that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. And of course, the press are by no means alone in such behavior. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with a vested interest is now basically operating along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What is happening to ourselves? Are we aware, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Separate from the inherent strangeness of playing in the middle of it all, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now basically content, product, open-source property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, in part this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be producing the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of opinion most visibly and harshly glimpsed at this season, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. All summer long we have been coveting players, praising them, salivating over them. Now, just a few weeks in, a lot of those very players are already being disdained as broken goods. Should we start to be concerned about a new signing? Did Arsenal actually need Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that Sesko faces Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at their stadium in the Premier League and yet in their own state of perceived turmoil, like submitting a a report on someone who went to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker waste of money. The coach bald.

Perhaps we have not yet quite grasped the way the storyline of football has started to replace football itself, to influence the way we watch it, an whole competition repivoted around talking points and reaction, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we scroll through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of opinions and more takes. Perhaps Sesko taking the hit at present. However, everyone is sacrificing something here.