In order to be successful in 2015-16, Manchester City will need improved contributions from numerous players who came up short in 2014-15 due to injury or form.

Amongst those players is a 26-year-old Ivorian bought in last year’s winter transfer window, Wilfried Bony.

Bony’s first few months with City were nothing to write home about. He was bought from Swansea in the January 2014 window for £25m, with the fee possibly rising to £28m. From there, City had to wait six weeks for Bony to make his first appearance in a City shirt, due to the African Cup of Nations.

Once Bony was finally ready to play for City, his opportunities were limited. He was only given about 340 minutes of game time between the Premier League and the Champions League. In those 340 minutes, Bony contributed only two goals and one assist. Those 340 minutes came in 12 appearances, only two of which were starts.

Bony’s limited time on the pitch made it hard to gel with his teammates and really get into the flow of things in his first season at City. Bony’s limited time on the pitch also made it hard to determine what exactly he could do in a City shirt.

Both of those things will change this season. Bony will have had the entire summer to train and better familiarize himself with all of the aspects of his team, especially when playing in City’s preseason friendlies.

Additionally, there is very good chance Bony will be the #2 striker entering the 2015-16 season. Edin Dzeko to Roma is a transfer that looks increasingly likely, and Stevan Jovetic is gathering quite a lot of interest from Inter Milan.

There is also the pesky little fact that Sergio Aguero has never played all 38 games in a Premier League season. While every City fan would love that this be the season Aguero stays fit for all 38 games, prior history says that just won’t be that likely. This means City will most likely find themselves in a stretch of games where Bony is the #1 striker.

Bony proved with Swansea that he is an established goalscorer in the Premier League. City having a striker capable of scoring 17 goals in 34 appearances is a great luxury to have, and one they didn’t last year. If Bony can provide similar numbers for City, it would be fantastic.

Bony has better players surrounding him than he did at Swansea, which is certainly a cause for optimism for his future success with City. Gylfi Sigurdsson is a fine player, but he’s certainly no David Silva.

Of course, moving to a better team hardly means it is a guarantee a player will do better. You could spend all day listing strikers who moved to a big club, failed to perform, and were never seen from again on a big stage.

After an insignificant 2014-15 campaign with City, Bony will be a very significant player for this season. He can make the difference between trophies and disappointment for City’s 2015-16 campaign.