Sports
Keep, Dump or Extend? 5 big questions Arsenal must answer in January
The transfer window opened on New Year’s Day, triggering a monthlong scramble to make any final personnel moves that will cover the rest of the Premier League season. For clubs vying for a top spot, it’s a chance to reinforce in the push for a trophy — or multiple. For teams looking to escape relegation, it’s an opportunity to bring in reinforcements to finish the job.
But it’s not just about the movement of players between clubs. Now is the time for clubs to worry about stars approaching the end of their contracts — whether hitting free agency in summer 2026 or 2027 — and extend them on new terms before they are persuaded to join elsewhere.
In this edition of Keep, Dump or Extend, Mark Ogden and Gab Marcotti examine the questions facing Arsenal all fronts, from contract renewals to transfers. Let’s dive in!
Arsenal: Keep, Dump or Extend?
• League position, as of Jan. 2: 1st, 45 points. (Last year’s finish: 2nd, 74 points)
• Realistic goal: Aim to win all four competitions they are alive in, but win at least one
1. Bukayo Saka‘s contract expires in June 2027. Tie him down to a new deal now or wait?
Ogden: I’m amazed that Arsenal still haven’t dealt with this. Saka is arguably their star player, a product of the club’s academy and the prime example of everything Arsenal claim to stand for, but they are taking a huge risk if they allow him to enter the final 12 months of his contract. Haven’t they heard of Trent Alexander-Arnold at the Emirates?
Saka is 24 and the best clubs in Europe will line up to take him in the summer or in 2027. Arsenal simply have to get this done ASAP.
Marcotti: It’s hard to imagine him elsewhere, but — and I say this without any inside info on Saka — you can see a scenario where Arsenal win the league or Champions League, he gets an attractive offer and talks about a new challenge somewhere else.
It’s possible they’ve reached an agreement in principle and simply haven’t announced it officially because they want to get maximum exposure. You hope that’s the case. Because as loyal as he is to the club, nobody likes being taken for granted.
2. Kai Havertz is ready to return. Does he play, or should Mikel Arteta keep faith with Viktor Gyökeres?
Ogden: Havertz and Gyökeres are obviously two forwards with very different profiles, but I don’t think you can play them together unless it is the final 10 minutes of a game and you’re flooding the zone with attackers in order to score a goal.
Havertz is a very talented player — though frustrating at times, he has a knack of scoring big goals in big games. Gyökeres is only scoring against the Premier League’s also-rans and he isn’t doing it very often, so it’s an easy answer in my opinion: Drop Gyökeres and go with Havertz.
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Marcotti: I’m a Havertz guy, so to me it’s a no-brainer, but I imagine it will depend on the opposition. I think they can definitely play together, though that would be at the expense of other, better options, so that’s not a route to go down.
More interesting, I think, is how Arsenal should play it going forward. If Havertz is fit and Arteta still picks Gyökeres ahead of him in most games, then you have to wonder about the wisdom of having your highest-paid player on the bench. He has a deal through 2028, and he’s 27 this summer. If he’s not going to start, I think it makes to shift him — ideally off the back of a successful World Cup.
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3. Mikel Arteta’s contract ends at the end of next season. Is his future dependent on winning a trophy?
Ogden: I think the Arteta skeptics among the fan base need to be careful what they wish for. He has transformed a club that had been drifting for over a decade under Arsene Wenger and put Arsenal back in contention for everything.
While they haven’t won a trophy yet, Arteta has made incredible progress. The club should end the talk of him needing to win a trophy this season by handing him a new contract.
Marcotti: They can wait until June if they like, but Arteta has already proven himself even if they don’t win a trophy. I think you have to extend him, even if only by a year or two. It’s not just because of what you see on the pitch; it’s the way he has represented the club and managed the dressing room, too.
4. Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard, Gabriel Jesus and Christian Nørgaard are all out of contract in 2027, like Saka. Should any be extended in January?
Ogden: Martinelli and Nørgaard have one-year options on their contracts, so there is no rush with those two, while Trossard and Jesus are both likely to be available for transfer this summer. Nørgaard has barely played since arriving from Brentford six months, so club and player will likely part company before his deal expires.
Martinelli is the tricky one — Arsenal will want to keep him, but he’ll be 25 next summer and might decide he doesn’t play enough games to justify staying at the Emirates. He always makes an impact when he comes off the bench, but less so when he starts, so I suspect there will be a parting of ways ahead.
Marcotti: Trossard has been hugely productive, and he’s happy to be a squad player. If he keeps getting minutes, he should be rewarded with an extra year.
Nørgaard arrived to do a specific job, and he has done it when called upon. He’s the only option off the bench in that role anyway, so of course you keep him.
Gabriel Jesus would have to perform miracles to make me want to keep him. He makes too much money and there are better, younger options already there. Arsenal should keep an open mind, but start easing him out.
As for Martinelli, he’s very much playing for his Arsenal future. With Trossard and Noni Madueke around (and Max Dowman coming through the pipeline) there are only so many minutes available. Unless he does something to convince Arsenal he’s irreplaceable, they have to start laying the groundwork to shift him this summer.
5. Do Arsenal need to do any player trading in January?
Ogden: Arsenal did a lot of business during the summer, with deals such as Nørgaard’s and Piero Hincapié‘s going under the radar due to the money spent on forwards such as Gyökeres, Eberechi Eze and Madueke.
Their squad is stacked in every position, and they have Havertz due back from injury, so I really don’t see the value in short-term fixes to cover short-term injuries.
Marcotti: Everybody in Arteta’s preferred XI has a viable alternative off the bench who can do a similar job (except Declan Rice, because there’s no such thing as an off-brand Rice; he’s unique). That’s a positive if Arteta can man-manage his way through it, and so far he has.
However, I think you have to think of player pathways and development. Ethan Nwaneri is 18, has a long-term deal and yet will likely end up playing significantly less than a year ago. He has yet to start a league game after staring 11 last year). Fullback Myles Lewis-Skelly, 19, also signed a big long-term deal and has started one league match after making 15 starts last season.
I think it’s logical to see if you can send them somewhere that will take care of them, allow them to grow and have them return as better players than they are now. It’s a tough sell to the players themselves, but if you can show there’s a pathway into the first team, it’s worth doing.
Sports
Wings stifle questions about Azzi Fudd-Paige Bueckers relationship
Azzi Fudd, the No. 1 pick in the WNBA draft, answered numerous basketball-related questions at her Dallas Wings introductory news conference Thursday, but one unrelated to the game overshadowed all the others.
Fudd and teammate Paige Bueckers, who will team in Dallas’ backcourt this season, went public about their relationship in 2025, and it was an often-discussed subject before this week’s draft.
But when Fudd was asked Thursday about both her relationship with Bueckers — the two overlapped at UConn and won a national championship together — and whether she would seek advice from other couples in the WNBA about navigating the relationship as pro players, the subject was quickly shut down.
“Understand why you have to ask that question,” a Wings public relations staffer interrupted. “We’re going to respectfully decline from commenting on our players’ personal lives.”
Fudd averaged 17.3 points on 47% shooting in her final season at UConn, which ended with the Huskies losing to South Carolina at the Final Four — their only loss of the season.
Bueckers, who was last year’s No. 1 overall pick by the Wings, averaged 19.2 points, 5.4 assists and 3.9 rebounds while winning the league’s Rookie of the Year award.
Wings general manager Curt Miller said the team never hesitated in its choice to draft Fudd as the team looks to take steps forward after tying for the league’s worst record last season at 10-34 and winning only nine games in 2024.
“Since the moment we secured the No. 1 pick, we set out on a plan to be deliberate, thorough, with intention on evaluating where we got to ultimately in picking Azzi Fudd,” Miller said. “We traveled all over the world watching this incredible draft class, but it all came back always to Azzi.
“Words that we heard over and over again in the investigation of her was, a winner, competitor, a hard worker, obviously the skill set speaks for itself, an incredible shooter — probably one of the quickest releases in the game today, a defender with a lot of competitiveness and toughness, and, ultimately, all the intangibles that goes along with Azzi in the locker room — being unselfish, being an incredible teammate, being a high-basketball-IQ player. [It] all pointed us through a very deliberate and thorough process back to Azzi Fudd.”
Sports
Former SMU cornerback Teddy Knox faces $2.88M judgment for crash linked to Rashee Rice’s Lamborghini race
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Kansas City Chiefs star receiver Rashee Rice isn’t the only one facing discipline for a March 2024 car crash in Dallas.
Theodore “Teddy” Knox, a former SMU cornerback and teammate of Rice’s in college, was driving a Corvette while racing Rice’s Lamborghini on a Dallas highway before it caused a multi-car crash.
Knox has been hit with a $2.88 million default judgment in a lawsuit from one of those crash victims, Kathryn Kuykendall, according to ESPN.
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Teddy Knox and Rashee Rice (Getty Images)
Knox was ruled “grossly negligent” by Judge Kim Bailey Phipps, and a default judgment comes when a lawsuit has no response or a party does not appear in court. In this case, it was reportedly the latter.
“We’ve asked the court to grant the default judgment because we’re ethically required to as a matter of diligence,” Kuykendall’s attorney, Marc Lenahan, said in a statement to ESPN when the motion was filed.
“Personally, it pleases us that Teddy hasn’t made further mistakes that we’re aware of. If a team gives him a chance to prove that he’s walking the right path now, we’ll be rooting for him.”
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This marks the third default judgment issued against Knox from the March 2024 crash. He was also ordered to pay $1.99 million to Irina Gromova and $1.63 million to Edvard Petrovskiy in combined damages.
Knox and Rice pleaded guilty to charges from the crash, and Knox was sentenced to 30 days in jail and five years of probation. Knox was charged with causing a collision involving serious bodily injury and racing on a highway causing bodily injury.

SMU wide receiver Teddy Knox on special teams during a game against the North Texas Mean Green Nov. 10, 2023, at Gerald Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas. (Chris Leduc/Icon Sportswire)
Rice had similar charges, receiving five-year deferred probation and 30 days in jail as a condition of the probation. His jail time was said to be flexible, according to the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office.
Rice was also required to pay the victims for their out-of-pocket medical expenses, which totaled around $115,000, as part of his plea agreement.
Rice was also suspended six games for violating the NFL’s personal conduct policy, which he served last season.
The 25-year-old receiver said in a statement issued by his attorney at the time of the league’s decision that he’s had “a lot of sleepless nights thinking about the damages my actions caused, and I will continue working within my means to make sure that everyone impacted will be made whole.”

SMU Mustangs wide receiver Teddy Knox (18) prepares to make a catch during a game between against the TCU Horned Frogs Sept. 24, 2022, at Gerald J. Ford Stadium in Dallas, Texas. (Matthew Visinsky/Icon Sportswire)
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Knox was suspended by SMU, and he hasn’t been in college football ever since. He began his career at Mississippi State before transferring to SMU.
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Sports
Mike Trout crushes fifth Yankee Stadium HR in four games
NEW YORK — Mike Trout‘s latest homer against the New York Yankees put him in rare company, and going deep again made history at Yankee Stadium.
Trout homered for the fifth time during a four-game series Thursday, crushing a 446-foot drive in the seventh inning for the Los Angeles Angels in an 11-4 victory.
A three-time MVP, Trout joined Jimmie Foxx (1933), Darrell Evans (1985) and George Bell (1990) as the only players with five homers in a series against the Yankees, according to MLB researcher Sarah Langs.
Trout homered twice Monday before going deep again in the following two games. In the series finale Thursday, Trout drove a 2-2 slider from reliever Angel Chivilli about halfway up the left-field bleachers to give the Angels a 7-4 lead. That shot made Trout the first player to hit five homers in a series in the Bronx.
“I heard that after the game,” Trout said. “It’s pretty surreal. All the great players that came through here, so it’s pretty cool.”
“Honestly, not surprising,” Los Angeles manager Kurt Suzuki said. “When you’re with Mike every day, there’s nothing that you believe that he can’t do.”
Trout also became the first visiting player to homer in four consecutive days at the current Yankee Stadium, which opened in 2009.
Trout went 6-for-16 with five homers and nine RBIs in the series. He also has homered in his past five games at Yankee Stadium and drew an intentional walk in his next plate appearance before Jo Adell hit a grand slam.
“At this point it’s vintage Mike Trout,” Adell said. “When he’s healthy and feeling good, there’s nothing like it. It’s special. It’s one of a kind. So for all of us to experience it, it’s special.”
“He’s unbelievable,” Suzuki said. “He really is. It’s been an amazing week for him.”
Trout is hitting .246 with seven homers and 16 RBIs. He is 9-for-27 (.333) with five homers and 13 RBIs on the Angels’ road trip, which coincides with him making a mechanical tweak.
Trout’s career-high homer streak is seven games, achieved Sept. 4-12, 2022. He has homered in four straight games for the fourth time in his career.
Trout’s homer was part of a four-game series that featured four homers from Yankees’ slugger Aaron Judge. Judge homered twice Monday, again Wednesday and went deep in the first inning in the series finale.
“He’s unreal,” designated hitter Giancarlo Stanton said after the Yankees lost for the seventh time in nine games. “Cool showing from him and Judgie all series. Obviously, you don’t want that against us, but you got to acknowledge the greatness.”
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, it was the first time opposing players who owned multiple MVPs hit at least three homers in the same series.
“It was an impressive show by those two,” Suzuki said.
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