appointed assistant manager to Chris Hutchings at Bradford City, after Hutchings was promoted from the role to replace Paul Jewell as City manager. Just four months later, Hutchings was sacked, and McCall was appointed as caretaker-player manager. His first game in the role was against his former team Everton, who were led by his former manager Walter Smith, but ended with a 1–0 defeat. He was in charge for one more game, which also ended in defeat, until Jim Jefferies was appointed the new manager. Jefferies brought with him his own assistant Billy Brown, and McCall was appointed first-team coach. After leaving Bradford City, he joined Sheffield United, where he also took up a coaching role. When he retired in 2004, he remained at Sheffield United as assistant to Neil Warnock. Working alongside Warnock and learning the managerial ropes from him, he helped mastermind The Blades' promotion to the Premier League in 2006. United were relegated to the Championship on the final day of the 2006–07 season and Warnock resigned three days later. McCall had already decided that the 2006–07 season would be his last as assistant manager, and when he was overlooked as a successor to the United manager's position, in favour of Bryan Robson, he decided to leave after five years with the club. Bradford City (first period as manager) McCall admitted in his autobiography, The Real McCall, he wanted to manage Bradford. He had been linked with the manager's position at Bradford City on numerous previous occasions, and after Colin Todd was sacked on 12 February 2007, City chairman Julian Rhodes made McCall his number one target to take over in the summer. Club captain David Wetherall temporarily took over and was later announced as caretaker manager for the rest of the 2006–07 season. On 22 May 2007, it was announced McCall would become manager of the club where he started his career, and on 1 June 2007 he assumed the position. In less than seven years since McCall's first two-game reign, serious financial problems had driven the club to the verge of closure, and although they survived the threat of oblivion, they were unable to avoid a terrible on-the-pitch decline, which continued after the financial nightmare had been relieved. On McCall's return to Valley Parade, the Bantams had just been relegated to League Two—meaning that they would be playing in the bottom division for the first