Why Manchester City Should Hold On To Wilfried Bony And Not Send Him Out
The 28-year-old Ivory Coast international was signed by former City manager Manuel Pellegrini for a sum of £28million from Swansea City back in January of 2015. Bony joined the Sky Blues after two extremely successful seasons at Swansea City where he scored a total 35 goals in just 70 appearances for the club.
Plenty was expected from the Ivorian striker in terms of goals but at the end of the season, he only managed to score 8 goals in 34 appearances. The following season Manchester City announced Pep Guardiola as the new manager of the club thereby leaving Bony’s City career in a fix. The 28-year-old clearly does not suit the system that the Spanish manager deploys and was sent out on loan to Stoke City last season. The loan move did not really materialise as well as Bony would have hoped it would, as he barely managed to get any game time, ending the season with just 2 goals in 11 appearances.
Manchester City have 5 strikers at their disposal including Sergio Aguero, Gabriel Jesus, Kelechi Iheanacho, Nolito and Wilfried Bony. But Nolito could possibly leave City before the start of the season with Celta Vigo interested in the Spaniard. This leaves Pep with four usable strikers, given that City do not sign any other strikers this summer.
With Champions League and other Cup competitions to play for, Pep might just have to keep the Ivorian at the Etihad this season and give him a fairly good amount of game time.
With just a bit over a month to go for the new season, Bony is also determined to stay put at the Etihad and prove Pep Guardiola that he has what it takes to be a top-class striker. Bony will have a chance to impress his boss in pre-season and do enough to earn a place in the team. This is what Bony had to say to Sky Sports News HQ regarding his future.
“I love the club, the fans. I want to show that Wilfried Bony is still the same player. I’ve been through a difficult time,” he told Sky Sports. “Leading the goalscoring two years ago, it’s still me, nothing has changed, just a difficult time. I just want to show them I can do more than that so I just need to get myself ready. Manchester City have to decide how many players [they want]. I’m a Manchester City player. I’m just getting myself ready for the pre-season on July 10.”
Keeping Bony at the Etihad this season could turn out to be good move for Manchester City as the striker could rediscover his form and probably win crucial games for the team with his goals.
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