Wilfried Bony Contract Should Be Top Priority for Swansea City
With Swansea City in great shape as the Premier League reaches its third international break, manager Garry Monk must make contract talks with striker Wilfried Bony his top priority.
The Ivorian, who joined the club from Vitesse Arnhem for a club-record fee of £12 million at the beginning of last season, has settled into life in the Premier League with ease, and is one of the Englishman’s key players in a blossoming side.
According to BBC Sport, the Ivory Coast international is set to sign a new contract when league service resumes.
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The striker was linked with a transfer away from the Liberty Stadium over the summer, but now seems to have pledged his future to the Swans, claiming “Yes [I was tempted to leave] but for me it's the past and not important now. I don't think about that now.”
Bony continues on the new contract that “it's something I wanted. It will be done when I come back,” while Monk testified that “it will be a big boost for everyone.”
The manager will surely now look to use this as a platform to continue his side’s impressive form.
To see Swansea progress forward, Monk must get this deal across the finish line, particularly with the January transfer window looming.
Wilfried Bony
Since joining Swansea, and making his first impression on the Premier League, Bony has taken to English football adeptly.
The striker is burly, intelligent and possesses a keen eye for goal.
In his first season with the club, Bony notched 16 league goals, from 34 appearances, amid a campaign muddied by the conflict between then-manager Michael Laudrup and chairman Huw Jenkins.
Naturally, this is how a Premier League striker will ultimately be judged, and Monk can have no complaints when it comes to the 25-year-old.
In terms of that fundamental quality, Bony has continued his immediate transition into English football by hitting the net for the Swans this season.
It was a slow start, with a barren run lasting for the side’s first six games, but Bony has now scored four goals in his last five league games, making the Ivorian the side’s leading goalscorer for 2014/15.
Bony’s influence goes far beyond his goals however, and within the striker’s style of play lies his true importance and the reason why Monk should be fervently preparing an improved contract with the Swansea board.
Swansea City Style
With Monk’s line-up typically based on a 4-2-3-1 formation, the contributions of Bony as the lone striker are crucial to the side’s domination in any game.
It seems counterproductive for a side renowned for their possessive constitution to deploy a strong lone striker with aerial prowess such as Bony, but the 25-year-old lends himself perfectly to the blueprint.
Monk utilises Bony’s strength to hold up play, but he is fortunate to have inherited such a technically gifted player too.
According to WhoScored.com, Bony has made 0.9 key passes on average per game, the third most of any Swansea player behind Gylfi Sigurdsson and Wayne Routledge.
Seb Stafford-Bloor of Squawka notes how the striker embodies the qualities of a “Bergkamp/Wright, Shearer/Sutton or a Yorke/Cole combination” of old: Technical ability and goalscoring nous.
"[Bony] gives his markers an impossible choice between standing off and allowing him to turn, or getting too close and giving him the opportunity to use his strength and technique to render them obsolete within the move.
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Understandably, this has resulted in Bony becoming one of the most fouled players in the league, with defenders often resorting to impeding the Ivorian rather than conceding an attacking opportunity through his technical ability.
During Bony’s aforementioned dry run, Swansea still managed to perform and solidify their position within the top half of the Premier League table.
It was the striker’s transition within their style of play that proved central to this.
During that spell, Bony was central to the Swans’ 3-0 victory at home to West Bromwich Albion, winning 75 per cent of his duels with the opposition and making two key passes, per Squawka.
The striker was second only to Swansea’s technical mastermind Sigurdsson on the creative front—a player Bony has developed a promising partnership with.
Now the striker has returned to goalscoring form, both aspects of Bony’s game are pleasantly complementing each other.
As the modern No. 9, Bony is integral to the side’s style of play.
The Downfall of Michu
To most astutely visualise Bony’s importance to Monk’s Swansea side, it is fitting to contrast the fortunes of the Ivorian with another striker on the Swans’ books: Miguel Perez Cuesta, or Michu for short.
The Spaniard proved one of the signings of the 2012/13 season after joining the Welsh club in a BBC Sport-reported £2.2 million deal from La Liga side Rayo Vallecano, scoring 18 goals in 35 league appearances, according to WhoScored.
The 28-year-old was a revelation, who seemed to possess the rare ability to ghost into the box, which has made Frank Lampard’s long career so successful, paired with a great technical game.
After struggling for form and fitness in his sophomore Premier League season, Michu joined Rafa Benitez’s Napoli in an initial loan deal, with a view to a permanent transfer, per BBC Sport.
Since the lofty trequartista's leaving, Bony has equalled Michu's record as Swansea's all-time top Premier League goalscorer with 20 goals.
More importantly, the Ivorian managed this feat in 43 games—nine less than Michu's 52.
At the time of his transfer to Serie A, Michu told the South Wales Evening Post that “I think it's a leap in my career to contest the Champions League for the first time.”
Under Benitez this season however, Michu has made just three Serie A appearances, including two starts, and has failed to hit the net once as Napoli continue to struggle for form despite a star-studded squad.
Furthermore, the Naples side failed to qualify for the Champions League through their play-off loss to Athletic Bilbao; meanwhile Swansea sit fifth, in the Premier League's coveted Europa League spot.
Before making the temporary switch to Napoli, Michu was linked with a move to Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal, according to the Daily Mail’s Sami Mokbel.
However, despite the Spaniard’s emphatic maiden season, Bony was the player who warranted the interest.
A new contract puts paid to that, for the short-term at least.
While Michu fails in glorious Naples, Wilfried Bony shines on the Welsh coast. Garry Monk must now look to secure the future of his prized striker before interest mounts up once more.
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