Pulis and his Ba obsession continues!

Tony Pulis has had yet more words to say about Demba Ba, and he believes that United will struggle to keep hold of the 16 goal hitman in the summer.

It's becoming borderline obsession if you ask me as Pulis uses any game against Newcastle to talk about the man he nearly signed from Hoffenheim.

Pulis once described described the 26-year-old as a "ticking time bomb", with reference to the strikers knee problem which caused his move to The Britannia to collapse before his move to West Ham. He then spent most of the build up to the game earlier on in the season talking about Ba and justifying his decision, only to see Ba slam a hat-trick past the Potters. He wants to be careful, as he's doing exactly the same again this time around.

The Stoke manager claims that it will be interesting to see how any transfer speculation with Ba pans out over the summer, and made reference to that now infamous clause in his contract - the one which nobody really seems to know fully what it's all about...

“It’ll be interesting to see how that pans out this summer,” Pulis told the Daily Star. He added: “I don’t think Newcastle paid that much money for him. That’s why I think he’s got this so-called clause in his contract, that he can leave for a certain figure."

Pulis then went on to explain yet again why Stoke pulled out of the deal:

“We really liked Demba at the time – and that was before anyone else had noticed him. That gets missed now and then. The difference with Demba then and now was that we would have had to pay £8-10m for him," said Pulis.

“So when you’re paying that out and his wages and the length of contract that he wanted, then there was the ­situation with his injuries, it was a chance the club didn’t want to take. They got my backing, if they thought that was the ­situation at the time, but he’s done ­brilliantly."

“We paid similar money for Peter Crouch and he’s been fantastic. I wouldn’t swap Crouchy for anybody.”

Maybe the Welshman is a little bit bitter about missing out on the player? Maybe this is why he talks about him quite a lot?

My suggestions though, is to shut up about players at other clubs, especially when you have one that you wouldn't swap for anybody!