Roberto Mancini has made plain his displeasure at the new Premier League reforms involving the impending introduction of a salary inflation cap.

"I do not agree," said Manchester City's manager. "If I am a rich man I want to spend all my money for my team; it's my job. It's only my personal opinion but I don't agree with the idea in general or these rules.

"We need to buy good players. If you want to buy good players you have to spend money. This isn't only for us, it's the same for every team but we will work hard and find a different way."

While clubs with annual player costs of more than £52m a year will now be limited to a £4m salary increase in 2013-14, they must also limit overall deficits to £105m over the next three seasons or face points deductions. These reforms promise to make it effectively impossible for a future billionaire club owner in the shape of City's Sheikh Mansour to lavish a fortune on their team in order to "buy" swift success.

"It is clear with this rule it is more difficult than 10 years ago," acknowledged Mancini. "In football, if you work well, you can find good players without maybe spending £30m on one individual, but it is also true that every time Manchester City move for a player, if his value is £10m, Manchester City will be asked for £30m. There should be other rules for this because sometimes you want to buy a player for £8m but it's £25m-£30m for Manchester City. This is the problem."

Mancini's most pressing difficulty is closing the nine-point gap on Manchester United at the top of the table and somehow retaining City's title.

"With 13 games to play I think it's important that we believe and continue to try to win all the games," he said before Saturday's trip to Southampton.

"In three months everything can change, like last year. If Manchester United win all their Premier League games from now until the end of the season they deserve the title but I'm sure we will have another chance. Last year nobody believed we could win the title but in the end we won it. This year could be the same. We are a strong team.

"If another team is better than you, you should accept this but I don't think that, in these past two years, there is a team that has played better than us. Manchester United is a strong team, Chelsea is a strong team but I think, that in the last two years, Manchester City is the team that has played best in the Premier League."