He will be joined on the sidelines by the defender Dejan Stefanovic, who was sent off for two bookings at Leicester and will miss either the Leeds game or any Cup replay against Watford.The West Ham captain Steve Lomas is facing an Football Association charge for his altercation with the referee Gerald Ashby. The provisional title, Managing To Survive, could be seen as tempting fate given Vale's parlous position, but Arsene Wenger should be warned that John Rudge's reputation owes more to success against the odds than to mere survival.. Benito Carbone's chances of re-establishing himself in the Sheffield Wednesday side have been hampered by a two-match ban. The Italian forward was booked for the fifth time this season for a foul in the 1-1 draw at Leicester and will be suspended from 11 January. He only returned to the starting line-up because of a two-match ban for his compatriot Paolo Di Canio, who is available for Saturday's FA Cup third-round tie against Watford. Which games Carbone sits out will depend on the result at Vicarage Road as he will miss the Premiership game at Leeds, plus either a Cup replay, a fourth-round tie or a League match against Wimbledon. There's only me, Billy Dearden [assistant manager] and Mark Grew [youth coach] running the show. There can't be any other First Division outfit - competing with Manchester City, Nottingham Forest, Wolves and Sheffield United - run by three blokes!''There have been tempting offers, from Preston, Bradford and much closer to home Like a man with a mission, Rudge has resisted them.

Now he is looking to the trip to Arsenal as an opportunity, like the tie against the other half of north London's elite, to revive morale and raise funds.Although he played at Highbury only once, for Bournemouth reserves, Rudge spent a week with the Gunners 20 years ago, studying Don Howe's coaching methods. The likely clash between the pounds 7.5m Dennis Bergkamp and his compatriot Mark Snijders, a centre-back Vale picked up free from Alkmaar, encapsulates the disparity between the clubs.The chance "to show Burslem to Bergkamp", as he puts it, could provide an interesting chapter for the autobiography on which he is working. Instead, Rudge relies on tip-offs from a network of friends in contacts built up over 35 years. He spends four nights a week watching matches and attempts to be "like an encyclopedia of players"."People ask why I don't delegate, but there's no one to delegate to. "Although I've reinvested part of that, a lot has gone into improving the ground."When you've got resources like ours you have to buy them cheap and sell them dear.

I think building teams is my big strength, but other managers picking off your players is forever weakening your hand. And while you're reconstructing you've got to keep winning games.''Vale can not afford a full-time scout. We eventually sold Jon to Birmingham for pounds 1.5m and replaced him with Gareth."Among his other proteges are Steve Guppy, Robbie Earle and Mark Bright "I've sold pounds 7m worth of players," Rudge says. I'd offered pounds 300,000 which is what I thought he was worth, but they were insisting on pounds 450,000."I told the chairman [Bill Bell] we should go for it because we were effectively getting two for the price of one.