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Imagine the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, appearing like he just missed a sitter. Do not worry finding an actual photo of him missing; context is the enemy. Now, include statistics in a large, comical font. Remember the emojis. Post the image everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally includes strikes in the Champions League while his counterpart does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. And will you note that four of Højlund's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Sesko's Slovenia and creates many more chances. You run social media for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

Thus the wheel of online material turns. Your next task is to sift through a 44-minute interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and find the part where he calls the acquisition of Sesko "strange". There's a bit, where he qualifies his remarks by saying, "Nothing negative to say about Benjamin Sesko"... well, cut that. Nobody wants that. Simply make sure "weird" and "the player" are paired in the title. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has traditionally one of my preferred times to observe football. Leaves fall, winds shift, squads and strategies are newly formed, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is closed. No one is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

Yet, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my most disliked times to read about football. For while no outcomes are decided, something must always be getting settled. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the top performer in the league right now? Please an answer immediately.

The Player as Patient Zero

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player caught between football's opposing, unavoidable forces. The imperative to withhold final conclusions, allowing layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to produce instant verdicts, a conveyor belt of takes and jokes, context-free criticisms and pointless comparisons, a puzzle that can not truly be circled.

It is not my aim to provide a in-depth analysis 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 grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we evaluating? Nor do I propose to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts argue thrillingly on a popular show over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this year (one pundit), or whether it's really more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

For all this I loved watching him at Leipzig: a big, screeching sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his abilities: afforded the freedom to attack but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a short advertisement, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the patience and space he needs, and the opportunity he is going to get.

There was an example of this during the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently stated that the player had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a survey of 20 agents. Naturally, the media are not the only ones in this. Team social media, influencers, anonymous X accounts with a suspiciously high number of fake followers: all parties with a vested interest is now basically aligned along the same principles, an environment explicitly nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to ourselves? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite 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 butterfly-effect level that each aspect about players is now basically material, commodity, public property to be packaged and traded.

And yes, partly this is because United are United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a big club that must constantly be generating the strong emotions. But also, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of judgment most visibly and cruelly glimpsed at this time of year, roughly four weeks 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 disdained as failures. Is it time to worry 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 Liverpool on Sunday: a team simultaneously on a long unbeaten run at their stadium in the league and yet in their own situation of perceived turmoil, like submitting a missing person’s report on a person who went to the store 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker 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 influence the way we view it, an entire sport reoriented around talking points and immediate responses, an activity that happens in the backdrop while we browse through our phones, incapable to disconnect from the saline drip of takes and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is sacrificing something in this process.