According to reports, Swansea City are desperate to get back their star forward Wilfried Bony before Thursday and are willing to offer as much as £13 million for the Manchester City forward. The Swans manager Paul Clement has plans to beef up his attacking front after a slow start to the season and with the transfer market likely to offer little quality in limited funds, going back to a proven prospect seems logical.
Though City boss Pep Guardiola has clearly excluded the 28-year-old from the squad, they will still hold out for a price somewhere in the region of the currently proposed fee and still incur a loss against the hefty £25 million-plus that they had paid for the Ivorian back in 2015.
Swansea had earlier tabled a bid of around £10 million but saw it rejected by City. However, now with very little time to go before the window closes and more money in the bank following Gylfi Sigurdsson’s sale to Everton, the South Wales club can afford to focus on him.
Clement saw his side go into the international break with a decent win 2-0 over Crystal Palace, after having largely struggled for goals in previous games against Southampton and Manchester United. Despite a quiet couple of seasons in the domestic league, Bony’s availability has seen clubs like Valencia, Olympique Marseille and Spartak Moscow coming for him.
Manchester City picked up Bony back in 2014 and since then, he could score only eight league goals in as many as 40 games. And with players like Sergio Aguero and Gabriel Jesus in the City camp, the bar is too high for the Ivorian to match. He was loaned off to Stoke City soon, who had a pathetic attack last season, but Bony still didn’t get a chance.
Wilfried Bony’s rise to stardom started in the South Wales club back in the 2013-14 season when he scored 17 goals in 37 games for them. Although he could never really continue his feat next season with injuries being a continuous hindrance, he had established himself as a top striker in England by then.
He could score only nine goals in 20 appearances the next season before City bought him. The African is known for his domineering strength and ball-holding abilities and has shown time and again how impactful he can be in pressure situations.
At his confident best, Bony can be terrorizing with his poacher-like approach and unparalleled work rate, and Swansea would be hugely benefitted with his addition. But should they make a move for him?
