Paul Lambert says he must have his fair share of the promotion jackpot – and insists that there needs to be a sense of reality over the Canaries' place in the Premier League next season.

Promotion to the top flight nowadays is estimated to be worth around �90m – and that's just for a team that finishes bottom of the league in its first season.

With City nursing a debt of around �20m, there has been inevitable speculation over how the pot of gold will be divided – and Lambert doesn't want to miss out on money that he believes he needs to ensure City place at football's top table is not temporary.

The City boss will holds talks with the club's top brass after the dust has settled on the current campaign – which ends at home to Coventry City this lunchtime – to determine what goes into the transfer kitty.

'I have just got to hope the club backs me in what I want,' said Lambert yesterday as he prepared for what is guaranteed to be a massive Carrow Road promotion party. 'I will have discussions with them and it is up to them. I have to hope they back me.

'Players wise I roughly know what we will try and do and I just hope the club back me.

'The money they will get will wipe out everything, I am pretty sure it will. I am not an expert on finances, I am no Carol Vorderman on Countdown, but I know how to add one and one.'

Asked whether he wanted his fair share, Lambert replied: 'Damned right I do.'

'The finances of the Premier League and what's happening is huge, in monetary terms no doubt it saved the club, that revenue,' he said. 'There is no doubt it probably saved it from when we come in when it was just about to go into administration. Now all of a sudden it has saved it, or the players did allied with the ones from last year. The crowd still bought into it.

'That is why the crowd should never be underestimated here, because when you get that size of crowd and they are coming in week in, week out they need a team to bounce off it and those two are the ones who have actually done it, because of what's happened.

'That is the realism of the whole thing. If you sit back and take stock of it that's the realism.

'It doesn't matter what happens behind the scenes or anything if you're not winning and the fan base will always be there because they have stuck with it through tick and thin, even when they got relegated, the crowd still came back. So your fans base is always there but they needed a team to drive them along and vice versa. The two of them have been brilliant.'

Lambert has consistently tried to play down expectations since he arrived in August, 2009 and insists the move from Championship to Premier League is a whole new ball game. The original seven-year plan has been ripped up – never in anyone's wildest dreams did Premier League football figure this soon, and Lambert says that must not be forgotten.

'This club has got to have a realism of what has been achieved with those lads,' he said. 'I'm pretty sure the crowd has got a realism now, but you can't make statements in the euphoria of a game when you have just gone from the Championship to the Premier League. Everybody gets caught up and says absolutely ridiculous things – I've been guilty of it myself, of the euphoria when you achieve something, but hang on a minute, pull the reins back for god's sake. The Premier League from an outsider looking in, my god almighty it is going to be the hardest thing ever. We have earned the right to be up there, but don't make ridiculous statements, that's what I think.

'You are on another planet – people have got to come back to planet earth I think with some of the things I have been hearing and have seen. It is an absolute lack of realism of what's going on. I am pretty sure the fans trust us – I think myself and Ian (Culverhouse) and Gary (Karsa) we have been here for two years and you would like to think people trust us in doing the job. It has been not a bad two years. Back to back (promotions) never been done for years – there has to be some sort of realism here.

'If Norwich City are in that league and they are in that company then my god you are going to have to have a realism about what has happened.'