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Imagine this: a smiling Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, place it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward in a Manchester United kit, appearing like he's missed a sitter. Don't worry locating an actual photo of that miss; context is the enemy. Now, include statistics in a big, silly font. Don't forget the emojis. Post it everywhere.

Would you point out that Højlund's tally features strikes in the premier European competition while his counterpart isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. Nor would you highlight that several of Højlund's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is much stronger to Slovenia and creates far more chances. You manage online for a large outlet, raw interaction is what pays the bills, United are the prime target, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the wheel of online material spins. Your next task is to sift through a 44-minute interview with Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "strange". Just before, where Schmeichel prefaces his comments by saying, "I have nothing bad to say about Benjamin Sesko"... yes, remove that part. No one needs that. Just make sure "weird" and "Sesko" are paired in the title. The audience will be outraged.

This Time of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has long been one of my preferred times to observe football. The leaves swirl, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are newly formed, all is novel and yet everything is beginning to form. The stars of the season ahead are planting their flags. The transfer window is closed. Nobody is mentioning the multiple trophies yet. Everyone are in contention. At this precise point, anything is possible.

However, for similar reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, something must always be getting settled. Jack Grealish is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? We need a decision now.

Sesko as Patient Zero

In many ways, Sesko feels like the archetype in this context, a player inextricably trapped between football's two countervailing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay definitive judgment, to let technical development and strategic understanding to develop. And the demand to produce permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of opinions and memes, context-free condemnations and meaningless comparisons, a square that can never truly be circled.

It is not my aim to offer a in-depth analysis of Sesko's stint at Manchester United to date. The guy has started on four occasions in the Premier League in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? And do I propose to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a podcast over whether he needs ten strikes to be deemed successful this season (Neville), or whether it's really more like 12 or 13 (Wright).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I loved watching him at Leipzig: a big, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team pitched perfectly to his talents: given the freedom to attack but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "brutal verdicts" are handed down in about the time it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most ruthless gulf between the patience and space he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw an example of this over the international break, when a widely shared infographic conveniently stated that Sesko had been deemed – decisively – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a survey of football representatives. And of course, the press are not alone in this. Team social media, influencers, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of fake followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the same principles, an ecosystem deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to ourselves? Are we aware, on any level, what this infinite sluice of aggravation is doing to our brains? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of it all, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that every single thing about them is now basically material, product, open-source property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the corpse that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must constantly be generating the big feelings. But also, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a swing of opinion most clearly and harshly observed at this time of year, roughly four weeks after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting players, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, just a few weeks in, a lot of those same players are now being dismissed as broken goods. Is it time to be concerned about a new signing? 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 at once 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like filing a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the store half an hour ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah past his prime. The striker waste of money. Arne Slot losing his hair.

Perhaps we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has started to replace football the actual game, to influence the way we watch it, an entire sport reoriented around discussion topics and reaction, an activity that happens in the background while we scroll through our phones, unable to detach from the saline drip of takes and further hot takes. Perhaps this player bearing the brunt right now. However, everyone is losing a part of the experience here.