Stuart McCall today put pen to paper on a new City deal and declared: All my managerial ambition lies here.

McCall wants to climb the divisions with the club he has served as player and now boss.

He signed on for another two years – and then set that as a realistic deadline to bring Championship football back to Valley Parade.

McCall said: “I know Julian Rhodes talked earlier in the season about back-to-back promotions. For me, by the end of the contract I’ll have been here four years and I would hope we can reach the Championship by then.

“I want to manage in the Championship but I’d rather do it here in a couple of seasons than somewhere else now. I’m showing loyalty because I want to be here.

“If we got promoted and other teams came in, I wouldn’t be looking to go. I don’t want to go.

“Obviously if things don’t go right, I could find myself somewhere else one day. But my managerial ambitions lie with this club. I can see myself being here for the long-run, taking us where we all want to go.

“People know what I feel for Bradford City and I wouldn’t ever think of using this as a stepping stone. I’m also fortunate to have the two chairmen and people I work with and we’ve all got the same belief and feeling for the club.”

McCall’s present contract was due to run out at the end of June. But with a large number of players’ deals up at the same time, sorting out his future now will remove uncertainty with squad negotiations and allow him to plan ahead.

He added: “It’s nice to get it done and shows loyalty from both parties. I was happy to leave it until the summer but it makes sense if the two chairmen are happy to do it now and I’m pleased they’ve acknowledged what I’m doing.

“We haven’t got a crystal ball. We don’t know what’s going to happen in the summer as in which division we will be in.

“But it gives me a chance to plan ahead. There are 15 games left, maybe more, and we’re all focused on what we want to achieve.

“Either way, if we’re successful or not, I know I’ll be focusing on next season.

“Management can be frustrating at times but it’s beneficial for the club to hopefully have that stability and be able to look forward.”

Joint-chairman Lawn said: “Year on year we’ve certainly progressed and you can see that on the pitch with the way we’re playing.

“We decided weeks ago that we were all happy for Stuart to continue. But with Gillingham, Wycombe and Darlington to focus on it wasn’t fair to put him under pressure about this so we decided to talk about it straight afterwards and we’re delighted it’s now done.

“Like myself and Julian, Stuart is a fan as well as being the manager which can make it very difficult if we’re on a bad run. We do feel the pain just as much as the fans, if not more.

“Stuart wanted to carry on but I can understand him talking to his family first. They feel it a lot more, seeing the angst and pain you go through when it’s not going well.

“He wanted to make sure they were happy first and it was right to do that.”

McCall had a meeting with the players yesterday to pick over the results during the second third of the season.

He added: “You look at the back-to-back 0-0s with Chester and Shrewsbury. If we’d taken the wins out of them that we should have done, we’d be sat top of the table now.

“We’ve just drawn a couple too many at home but we’re in a decent position and I feel very happy with the squad we’ve got.”