Croatia midfielder Mateo Kovacic admits he wishes he had joined Manchester City sooner.

The pass master swapped Chelsea and London for City and Manchester, choosing to work under Pep Guardiola.

Kovacic believes that he could have won even more trophies if he had signed for Guardiola's team earlier in his career.

"It's amazing and tough because I'm learning a lot of new things and I would have loved to come at an earlier age to learn," said Kovacic, while on international duty.

"But it's never too late to learn. I think like that. So I'm happy I can learn from him and what he tells you.

"I would've loved someone to have told me a few years ago. But yeah, now I can still learn and you can really tell he is fantastic. I've really enjoyed it from the first moment. It was tough the first few days to understand what he wants - 'don't move there, go there'.

"So I like to run a lot on the pitch sometimes - 'go there, go there'. But he told me, 'Be more calm, don't run too much'. So it was like a little bit of surprise for me as well and it's nice. The club you can tell from the first day is amazing. The people are great, and the city is also nice."