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Imagine this: a smiling the Danish striker wearing Napoli's colors. Now, juxtapose that with a sad-looking Benjamin Sesko sporting United's jersey, looking as if he just missed an open goal. Don't worry finding a real picture of him missing; context is the enemy. Then, add statistics in a big, comical font. Remember 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 does not compete in Europe? Certainly not. Nor will you highlight that four of the Dane's goals came against weaker national sides, or that Denmark is much stronger to Slovenia and creates far more chances. You manage online for a large outlet, pure engagement is what pays the bills, United are the biggest draw, and context is your sworn enemy.

Thus the cycle of content spins. Your next task is to scan a lengthy interview featuring the legendary goalkeeper and extract the part where he describes the acquisition of Sesko "weird". 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 ensure "weird" and "Sesko" appear together in the headline. The audience will be outraged.

The Season of Potential and Hasty Opinions

Mid-autumn has traditionally one of my favourite times to watch football. Leaves fall, the wind turns, squads and strategies are still fresh, all is novel and yet patterns are emerging. Key players of the coming months are planting their flags. The transfer window is shut. No one is mentioning the quadruple yet. Everyone are in contention. Right now, all is possibility.

However, for similar reasons, this period has long been one of my least favourite times to read about football. For while nothing has yet been settled, opinions must be formed immediately. The City winger is resurgent. The German talent has been a major letdown. Is Antoine Semenyo the best player in the league right now? Please an answer now.

The Player as Patient Zero

And for numerous reasons, Sesko feels like the archetype in this respect, a player inextricably trapped between football's opposing, non-negotiable forces. The imperative to delay final conclusions, allowing technical development and tactical sophistication to mature. And the demand to produce instant definitive judgment, a constant stream of takes and memes, context-free criticisms and pointless comparisons, a square that can not truly be solved.

It is not my aim to provide a substantive evaluation of Sesko's time at Manchester United so far. The guy has started on four occasions in the top flight in a highly unpredictable team, scored two goals, and taken a grand total of 116 contacts with the ball. What precisely are we evaluating? And will I attempt to replicate Gary Neville's and Ian Wright's notable debate "Argument Over Benjamin Sesko", in which two famous analysts duel thrillingly on a podcast over whether Sesko needs ten strikes to be a success this season (Neville), or whether it is more like twelve or thirteen (Wright).

A Harsh Reality

Despite this I enjoyed watching Sesko at his former club: a powerful, fast racing car of a striker, playing in a team ideally suited to his talents: given the license to rampage but also the leeway to miss. And in part this is why Manchester United feels like the cruellest place he could possibly be at the moment: a place where "harsh judgments" are summarily issued in roughly the duration it takes to load a pre-roll ad, the club with the widest and most ruthless gap between the time and air he requires, and the opportunity he is likely to receive.

We saw an example of this over the international break, when a viral infographic conveniently informed us that Sesko had been deemed – by a wide margin – the poorest acquisition of the summer transfer window by a poll of football representatives. And of course, the press are not the only ones in this. Club channels, online personalities, unidentified profiles with a oddly high number of pornbot followers: all parties with a vested interest is now essentially aligned along the identical rules, an environment deliberately nosed towards provocation.

The Mental Cost

Scroll, scroll, tap, scroll. What are we doing to us? Are we aware, on any level, what this endless stream of irritation is doing to our minds? Quite apart from the essential weirdness of being a player in the center of this, knowing on a bizarre chain-reaction level that every single thing about them is now basically material, product, public property to be repackaged and traded.

Indeed, partly this is because it's Manchester United, the entity that keeps nourishing the cycle, a major institution that must always be producing the strong emotions. But also, partly this is a temporary malaise, a pendulum of opinion most visibly and cruelly glimpsed at this season, about a month after the window has closed. Throughout the summer we have been coveting footballers, praising them, drooling over them. Now, just a few weeks in, many of those very players are already being disdained as failures. Should we start to be concerned about Jamie Gittens? Was Arsenal's purchase of Viktor Gyökeres necessary? What was the purpose of Randal Kolo Muani?

A Wider Issue

It seems fitting that he faces their rivals on the weekend: a team simultaneously 13 months unbeaten at home in the league and somehow in their own state of feverish crisis, like submitting a missing person’s report on someone who popped to the shops half an hour ago. Defensively suspect. Mohamed Salah past his prime. Alexander Isak an expensive flop. The coach bald.

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 view it, an whole competition reoriented around talking points and reaction, an activity that occurs in the background while we browse through our devices, unable to disconnect from the constant flow of takes and further hot takes. It may be this player bearing the brunt at present. But in a way, everyone is sacrificing something here.