I think the recall would only happen if Vale are confident he'd get more gametime with us. He can't go on loan elsewhere so it's either Vale or Walsall.
Perhaps they've opted for thinking his chance will eventually come at Walsall and he'll get more games there than here.
I wouldn't personally agree with that but I can see it may be someone's viewpoint especially with our large squad.

Still leaves the puzzle as to why he was loaned out in the first place, given Moore’s praise.

2 minutes ago, efsb said:

Still leaves the puzzle as to why he was loaned out in the first place, given Moore’s praise.

My theory is that when we signed him, we were light on squad numbers. 

But then we were able to add Shipley to the team, who Moore definitely preferred for the 'experience'. Ojo didn't move on, and instead reintegrated himself to the first team. No suitable offer came in for Walters. With Hall coming in, which was a surprise, there was definitely no space for Richards at that point. 

5 minutes ago, NW9Valiant said:

My theory is that when we signed him, we were light on squad numbers. 

But then we were able to add Shipley to the team, who Moore definitely preferred for the 'experience'. Ojo didn't move on, and instead reintegrated himself to the first team. No suitable offer came in for Walters. With Hall coming in, which was a surprise, there was definitely no space for Richards at that point. 

Exactly, it’s a really simple explanation.

But everyone prefers to make up a pretend scenario that Rico has fallen out with someone at the club or something has ‘gone on’.

1 minute ago, NW9Valiant said:

My theory is that when we signed him, we were light on squad numbers. 

But then we were able to add Shipley to the team, who Moore definitely preferred for the 'experience'. Ojo didn't move on, and instead reintegrated himself to the first team. No suitable offer came in for Walters. With Hall coming in, which was a surprise, there was definitely no space for Richards at that point. 

That would make some sense, but would be terrible planning on our part. But if that was the case it wouldn't make sense for him not to be recalled now, given we could give him as much game time as Walsall are I.e. Just the trophy, we have a new manager who could take a look at him, like seems to be happening with Plant & Shorrock, and if we are switching to 442 or 433 we actually don't have that many players for the wide attacking positions which Richards could play.

I'm more inclined to believe the rumours that something has happened behind the scenes which has led to him been unwelcome back at Vale. No idea what that is, but it's the only thing that makes sense at this point.

13 minutes ago, PVFC2001 said:

Exactly, it’s a really simple explanation.

But everyone prefers to make up a pretend scenario that Rico has fallen out with someone at the club or something has ‘gone on’.

He is over 21 so squad limits come into play. Clubs sign players for development so can easily go over the limit. Understandably players can be disappointed but part of football. Rumours are a big part too.

I still would have kept Richards around because he offers something different from those players mentioned. If youre chasing a game and need a bit of attacking spark, I'd rather bring on Rico than Shipley or Ojo.

57 minutes ago, matmat said:

I'm more inclined to believe the rumours that something has happened behind the scenes which has led to him been unwelcome back at Vale. No idea what that is, but it's the only thing that makes sense at this point.

Yeah, the squad got bigger and we can't register him so he is on his bike. 

Not sure why players leaving the club has to have rumours and innuendo attached. He's just not fancied / favoured over what else we have got. That's football, unfortunately. We have a massive squad as it is, would it be better he was not playing for us either? We can't make Walsall play him, thats on him to get into the team there. 

Poor planning or not, I don't think anybody had George Hall on their bingo card joining the Vale this season. 

14 minutes ago, NW9Valiant said:

Yeah, the squad got bigger and we can't register him so he is on his bike. 

Not sure why players leaving the club has to have rumours and innuendo attached. He's just not fancied / favoured over what else we have got. That's football, unfortunately. We have a massive squad as it is, would it be better he was not playing for us either? We can't make Walsall play him, thats on him to get into the team there. 

Poor planning or not, I don't think anybody had George Hall on their bingo card joining the Vale this season. 

My view exactly. I don't get the conspiracy theories every time someone isn't playing. I think it's probably exactly as above. 

We saw exactly the same process with Darren Moore over goalkeepers. He signs Marosi supposedly as the number one then decides he still needs another keeper and Marosi eventually drops from first choice to third choice due to Moore's bulk buying approach to the last window. 

18 hours ago, Powerline said:

If we could get Marosi out then I would agree but I imagine no one will take him and cover his wages

@Powerline

The following was my POV about that, earlier in this thread -  

On 13/01/2026 at 16:44, Alan Vit said:

But Marko Maroši is contracted for this season and next, so imho the only realistic way to move him on is on loan, with the other club paying only a proportion of his wages.

He has over 300 appearances mainly in EFL1 and the Championship.

An EFL1 / EFL2 / NL club with goalkeeper issues might well choose to take him on loan for a period on that basis.

Cambridge did exactly that with Marosi in last year's January window.

For the sake of Vale and also the player perhaps it may happen again. 

You'd expect any player on the fringes is desperate to play some games so will be looking for clarity from the club where they stand and be looking at their options. If we ended up keeping one of those players, I'd suggest that it's more likely a move hasn't worked out. 

With a manager change in a transfer window, you'd think its a nervous time to be a player who wants to make sure they are playing. 

As a goalkeeper though he might be happy enough on the sidelines, but as we don't need 3 senior keepers I'd hope Marosi can be found somewhere to play that might free up wages for other improvements. 

44 minutes ago, NW9Valiant said:

I don't think anybody had George Hall on their bingo card joining the Vale this season. 

Nobody would have had George Hall joining us on their bingo card and if the figure we allegedly got him for is correct then we got him for an absolute bargain IMO especially when 2 years ago numerous PL clubs were after him including Leeds who put in a offer of £6m.

Edited January 15Jan 15 by ValiantHan

Hart staying at Falkirk?

Hope so, we dunna need him back![emoji57]

3 hours ago, robf said:

On the first point - I thought Rico was very useful coming off the bench last season, albeit in a lower division and I'm surprised that after going to the effort of signing him, he then gets shipped off on loan. I would have thought he could (at the least) have done another "super sub" role this season.

On the latter - he can't play for anyone else. He played two games for Vale earlier in the season so with his appearances for Walsall he's hit the two club limit this season. So, the choice is either remaining at Walsall or coming back to Vale, he can't go anywhere else unless he drops out of the Football League (think he can still play in Scotland and National League).

Forgot about the club limit, cheers. I’d definitely still bring him back as we need depth for the winger position.

30 minutes ago, Powerline said:

Forgot about the club limit, cheers. I’d definitely still bring him back as we need depth for the winger position.

Walshall have said reco is staying there as recall date as past