Serial promotion winner and Norwich City fan Paul Warne admits Ipswich have set the bar high for his Championship newcomers Derby County.

Warne guided the Rams to the fourth promotion of his coaching career, but knows how tough it will be to emulate Blues’ rival Kieran McKenna’s achievement of back-to-back promotions from League One.

“I think Derby, one day, will get back to the Premier League. That is the ambition of everyone at the football club,” said the former FA Vase winner with Diss Town. “I don’t know how long that will take and how much of that journey I will be on, or play a part in. But we’ve played a little part in getting to the first stage.

"It is a boring word but we have to ‘stabilise’ this year and be competitive and try to build on it, window to window, to try and get ourselves into the top six. It could take 10 years, it could take three.

“I have joked about Kieran killing us. They had a considerably bigger budget (in League One). They did loads of other stuff away from the pitch that made them better, but it was a big spend. We have to be as competitive as we can, try to entertain the crowd as much as we can, however, these are very good teams we are playing against.”

Paul Warne was part of Diss Town's FA Vase win at Wembley in 1994 Picture: Newsquest

Warne has released eight players over the close season, including ex-Norwich City youngster Korey Smith, while Bradley Johnson also announced his retirement from playing.

“It doesn’t matter what league or what club, fans expect the most. You should never take that dream away from them,” he said, speaking on Talksport. “If I said I have a £3m budget, and I am being a bit facetious, there are still a proportion of fans who think, ‘We are Derby, we’ll get behind the team, we can do well’. But realistically you finish two places above or below your budget.

"I bet the four richest clubs are in and around the Premier League top four, and so on down through the leagues. The job as a management team is to get the best players that suit us and push them to get the highest we can out of our zone.

“I think we should have finished in the top six (last season), but we finished second. I thought we were a top four squad. But at my previous club (Rotherham) my budget was never in the top six so you have to push hard and that is why I try to sign good people who give the most every day.

“We go into the Championship very confident but not arrogant. I wouldn’t say we will finish 20th any more than I would say we will finish sixth. It is a really tough league. I thought last season’s Championship was the best for years. But the difference from seventh down to 20th was virtually nothing.”