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Picture the following: a happy Rasmus Højlund wearing Napoli's colors. Next, juxtapose it with a sad-looking the Slovenian forward sporting United's jersey, looking as if he's missed a sitter. Do not worry locating an actual photo of him missing; background information is the enemy. Now, include some goal stats in a large, comical font. Don't forget some emoticons. Share it everywhere.

Will you mention that Højlund's tally features scores in the Champions League while Sesko isn't playing in Europe? Of course not. And will you highlight that several of the Dane's goals were scored versus weaker national sides, or that his national team is far superior to Slovenia and generates many more chances. You run online for a major brand, pure interaction is your livelihood, Manchester United are the biggest draw, and context is the thing to avoid.

So the cycle of content turns. Your next task is to scan a lengthy podcast featuring Peter Schmeichel and extract the part where he describes the signing 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. Nobody needs that. Simply make sure "strange" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. People will be outraged.

The Season of Promise and Hasty Opinions

The heart of fall has long been one of my preferred periods to watch football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, the teams and tactics are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. The stars of the coming months are staking their claims. The transfer window is shut. Nobody is talking about the multiple trophies yet. All teams are still in the game. At this precise point, all is possibility.

However, for many of the same reasons, this period has also been one of my least favourite times to read about football. Because although nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is reborn. Florian Wirtz has been a major letdown. Could Semenyo be the best player in the league at this moment? Please a decision immediately.

The Player as The Prime Example

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like Patient Zero in this respect, a player caught between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay final conclusions, to let layers of technical texture and tactical sophistication to develop. And the imperative to generate permanent definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, out-of-context condemnations and pointless contrasts, a puzzle that can not truly be solved.

I do not propose to offer a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. The guy has been in the lineup on four occasions in the Premier League in a wildly inconsistent team, scored two goals, and taken a mere of 116 contacts with the ball. What exactly are we analysing? Nor will I attempt to replicate the pundits' seminal masterwork "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel passionately on a podcast over whether he needs 10 goals to be a success this year (one pundit), or whether it is more like 12 or 13 (the other).

A Cruel Environment

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast sports car of a forward, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to miss. Partly this is why United feels like the most unforgiving place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in about the time it takes to watch a pre-roll ad, the club with the largest and most ruthless gulf between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

There was an example of this over the international break, when a viral chart handily stated that the player had been deemed – decisively – the worst signing of the recent market by a poll of football representatives. Naturally, the press are not the only ones in this. Team social media, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: everybody with a vested interest is now essentially operating along the same principles, an environment deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Psychological Toll

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to us? Do we realize, on some level, what this infinite stream of aggravation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of playing in the center of this, aware on some surreal butterfly-effect level that each aspect about players is now basically material, product, public property to be packaged and exchanged.

Indeed, in part this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the narrative, a big club that must always be generating the strong emotions. However, in part this is a seasonal affliction, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and cruelly glimpsed at this time of year, about a month after the window has closed. All summer long we have been desiring footballers, eulogising them, salivating over them. Yet, only a handful of games later, a lot of those same 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 Liverpool on the weekend: a team at once 13 months unbeaten 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 shops 30 minutes ago. Too open. Mohamed Salah finished. The striker waste of money. The coach losing his hair.

Maybe we have failed to understand the way the storyline of football has begun to supplant football the actual game, to influence the way we view it, an entire sport repivoted around discussion topics and reaction, something that occurs in the backdrop while we scroll through our devices, incapable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and more takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, we're all sacrificing something in this process.