Hoffenheim striker Demba Ba fails Stoke City medical

No room for complacency - Pulis

Stoke City's bid to sign Hoffenheim striker Demba Ba has fallen through after the player failed a medical, the club has revealed.

The Senegal international, 25, had agreed personal terms with the Potters and was set to sign for around £6m.

"Having agreed all the financial terms of the deal with Hoffenheim and the player, he failed his medical," said Stoke's chief executive Tony Scholes.

"We will not therefore be signing him on a permanent basis."

Speaking after Saturday's 2-0 win over Bolton at the Britannia, Potters boss Tony Pulis added that the move for Ba shows the club are looking to improve.

"It says a great deal about the Coates family, and what they're prepared to do for this football club," said Pulis. "The chairman and his family know what we need to do. We've spoken about how to move the club on.

"We thought it was a very good deal - his wages were within our structure and everything was in place. Unfortunately there has been a medical problem that has been highlighted and the deal as we know it, is not going to go ahead."

606: DEBATE The word is that Ba has failed his medical due to a knee condition boothenbrother

Pulis added: "I am desperately disappointed. You look at him and he has a tremendous scoring record.

"We have been over to watch him three or four times. Everyone has come back with good reports. But we have to put the club first and I understand that.

"As we have progressed as a club, the medical side has progressed as well. They take great responsibility and great care when they look at the players we are trying to bring in. The money involved is huge. Obviously they found something which could cause problems later."

Pulis, however, hinted the deal could still be resurrected.

"It might be. You don't know, " he said. "The deal we agreed was a great one for the club. It was within our budget, which was really important.

"There was no way we were going to break the budget, especially on wages and length of contracts. We keep that as tight as we can.

"The chairman [Peter Coates] has decided this is the way we are going to work this club and he fell within all the limits.

"There was no problem with the negotiations and the kid wanted to come to Stoke which was brilliant."

Ba looked set to leave Germany after he refused to travel with Hoffenheim to their winter training camp in Spain. He was threatened with legal action by the club's general manager, although Ba suggested in a statement on his own website that Hoffenheim had gone back on a promise to let him move to England, amid reported interest from West Ham United.

"I regret the situation and I suffer from it," Ba said on 6 January. "The club gave me a green light to leave under certain conditions which have been met. I hope that the promises will be fulfilled."

The Potters' failure sign Ba could yet revive the Stoke careers of other strikers at the club who were tipped to leave the Britannia Stadium if Ba completed his transfer.

Former Chelsea and Barcelona forward Eidur Gudjohnsen is yet to start a match since joining Stoke in August, while Tuncay posted a video of some of his favourite goals on social networking site Facebook, which some media outlets believe was an attempt to secure a move elsewhere after growing frustrated with his lack of opportunities at the club.