Speaking to Sky Sports, Chris Coleman said: "If we can build on our position in the league as we are stuck in the middle and break into the top ten as one side always makes a late surge. "It's going to be difficult but I never say never."
The City boss also felt that the FA Cup game against Chelsea was a distraction as the most important thing is promotion. Speaking to the media, Coleman said: "If we won the FA Cup, it doesn't get us to where we want to be. The only way to get us where we want to be is via the league and that is the most important thing for this club.
"I expect to be challenging more strongly for promotion next season but we've got to have another good transfer window.
"We've had two good transfer windows. We've lost 16 players and eight have come in because the squad was big. There were 35-36 players when I arrived.
"Without being nasty, 25 of them weren't going to get us to where we want to be.
"So we said we'd cut the squad down in terms of quantity but had to improve the quality a lot and we've done that a lot.
"The eight we've brought in have done well but we have got to do it again in the summer. Even if we have barnstorming finish, in the next window we've got to do it again and get in another three or four more good players.
"Then we can climb a few more places. We are making progress. If we finish at least halfway, we've climbed quite a few places so then we've got to bridge that gap to the top six."