And with just two strikers available to him at present, Buckle said the Ademeno deal is not over quite yet.
"There's still a chance," he told BBC Radio Devon. "The player wanted to come to us which was very encouraging but it comes down to the money."
He added: "You speak to the agent and you agree something with Crawley, but we didn't get it through in time."
Ademeno joined Crawley Town last summer after being released by Southend United and has scored eight goals this season, including a hat-trick in the first six minutes against Grays.
The need for extra firepower for Torquay is all the more pressing following the sale of Tim Sills to Stevenage last month, coupled with Scott Rendell breaking his arm against Bradford last Saturday.
This leaves the Gulls with Elliot Benyon and Chris Zebroski as their only fit forwards.
However, Buckle revealed that his shortage of strikers has not been through a want of trying.
"We've worked tirelessly to try and add young players to the squad but we've not managed to bring anybody in apart from the young boy from Leicester [Lathaniel Rowe-Turner]," he said.
"But that's where we are you know, we've been priced out - everywhere we've gone we've been priced out."
"There's been lots of players available and I've gone for a lot of players but there's a price that we can pay, we can't pay a big premium for players and we've missed out time and time again."
Torquay are away at Hereford in League Two on Saturday.
Source: BBC Sport
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