Town skipper Luke Chambers believes securing promotion from the Championship, or even qualifying for the play-offs, could be an even more difficult task next season than it has proved in the current campaign.
With Newcastle, Sunderland and Norwich all battling to avoid accompanying already-relegated Aston Villa down from the Premier League — and the three clubs eliminated from the play-offs guaranteed to remain — Chambers said: "I’d like to see what is going to happen with Financial Fair Play because all the top six can’t go up.
"We’ll have to see if there is any punishment for that because when teams have broken the rules in the past they have still signed players.
"I’ve heard the likes of Nottingham Forest and Blackburn crying that they can’t sign players but they have still signed players on big, big money and brought in others on loan.
"So there’s obviously ways round it but it’s not something we want to get ourselves into, spending £30 million like Derby have.
"The pressure’s all on them if they don’t go up and they’re going to do it again, to push again, whereas the owner here has set his stall out with a manager who can wheel and deal to bring in players who can perform at the required level.
"Maybe with a little bit of investment we can be in the top six next year. The gaffer will no doubt strengthen over the summer and there will also be players who will move on. I’ve been proud to lead the team this season and hopefully I can do the same next year.”
Chambers is also encouraged by the emergence of young talent like 16-year-old Andre Dozzell, along with full-backs Josh Emmanuel and Myles Kenlock, 18 and 19 respectively, who impressed in the 3-2 home win over MK Dons last week.
Emmanuel ended Chambers’s hopes of completing the campaign with a 100 per cent appearance record in the Championship and he added: "I had a chat with the gaffer. I had hurt my ankle in the week so we spoke on the Friday.
"I was ready to train and he looked at my ankle, which was all strapped up. He said he had decided to give the young boys a game and I must say they both did tremendously well.
"It shows that we have got that strength in depth and hopefully both boys will be challenging me and Jonas next season.
"I don’t think any players think their place in the team is safe at all. We are always trying to improve each other. But when you’ve got the likes of Josh and Myles it’s the sort of genuine competition that we need.
"They may be just 18 and 19 years old but they are physically ready for playing league games. They are both big boys who can handle themselves and will be pushing to start games next year, which will have to take us to another level. It can’t just be the same four players at the back week after week no matter what.
"We know that as a back four this season we have conceded too many goals for our liking. It’s something we’ll have to work on next year and that’s exactly what we will be doing as best we can.
"But I think we’ve earned our break and the lads will enjoy themselves in the summer — but we’re already looking forward to coming back ready to give it another crack in the new season.”