Manchester City boss Pep Guardiola confessed that he wanted to sign Juan Mata during his time as head coach of Barcelona.

The Manchester United midfielder had previously plied trades for Valencia, thus making him a viable candidate for a transfer to Barcelona, thanks to the experience of playing in Spain.

Guardiola admitted that due to the excess of personnel in midfield, the transfer was not feasible.

“He’s an exceptional player,” said Guardiola, according to Goal.

“One of the players I like the most – not love because I don’t know him well, but one of the players I like the most.

“From Valencia, always in Barcelona, we took an eye to try to bring him to Barcelona, but the problem was we had a lot of midfield players.

“That was a little bit the problem, but he is an incredible player. He played really well at Chelsea and United.”