Wilfried Bony believes he can form a “scary” partnership with Sergio Agüero next season, though the Ivorian has admitted to struggling since his £25m move from Swansea City in January.
Bony, who will hope to face his old club when City travel to south Wales for Sunday’s early kick-off, has scored only once for the champions. However, the forward was with Ivory Coast at the Africa Cup of Nations until mid-February and he has also suffered injury.
Bony said of Agüero, who leads the Premier League scoring table: “He’s one of the best. He’s got 25 goals in the league – hopefully now he will be the top scorer. You can see when we play together that there is something there. You can see we are both different, too. I couldn’t say I’m quicker than him but he’s not stronger than me. But we can work together and complement each other.
“Together I think we can be quite scary. That’s why I want to prepare myself for the next season and make sure I am ready for that. It’s been a difficult time here at City but this is football. I can’t choose the international programme. I can’t choose the time to be injured. Of course I would like to have been here more, to be fit and to be scoring – but that is something you can’t control.
“All I can do now is work, try and help my team. But I like it here, this club is always fighting, the pressure is everywhere. I am not afraid about that. I knew at Swansea if you want to get to play for a top-four club I needed to prepare very well do my best and score a lot of goals – that what I’ve done. So I’m here now. I’ve come late in the season but I just need to prepare myself for next season. We’ll see how I do then.”
Bony is clear City’s supporters have not see the best of him. “No they haven’t,” he added. “There is not long left between now and the end of the season. I just hope we can keep our second position while I try to prepare myself for the next season. Next season is when you will see the real Bony at City. It’s about me trying to adapt to the way City play. Some of these players have been here for a long time but I’ve just arrived. I’ve needed to get to know the players, introduce myself to them, but still do my best for the team while they are waiting for me to do it. It’s a different type of player here.”
Bony said of his return to the Liberty Stadium: “It’s a good game for us at Swansea – and an important one. If we want to keep that second position we have to win there. They will be looking for me coming back and hopefully I will enjoy it. It could be good or it could be bad. I hope they will give me a nice reception. There will be some who are happy to see me and some not. They’ll say: ‘He’s not playing there at City, only a couple of minutes, he should not have left.’ But this is part of football, it is what it is. You can’t be loved by everyone. Of course I would love to score back at Swansea.”
