Gary Jones today urged City to bend over backwards to keep the man masterminding their £2.3m Capital One Cup bonanza.

The Bantams are back in training today as they try to come down from the euphoric high of reaching Wembley.

They are expected to bank up to £1m from the February 24 showdown with Swansea – from their 45 per cent share of the gate receipts as well as TV cash - to go with the estimated £1.3m already destined for the club coffers after dumping Arsenal and Aston Villa.

The players, who are being whisked off for a three-day break in Tenerife after the weekend game against Wycombe, will split around £250,000 of the Wembley wonga in agreed bonuses. But the rest will be ploughed into helping the team continue their rise.

And skipper Jones hopes that will include securing the future of boss Phil Parkinson.

The City chief last week rejected interest from Blackpool and is keen to stay – and Jones wants the club to get the present contract talks finalised as soon as they can.

The veteran midfielder said: “You always worry about losing a manager and he has done an absolutely incredible job. He’s been amazing.

“He said nothing to us about Blackpool and kept it quiet. But that’s the character of the man, he just goes about his business.

“The gaffer’s not a ranter and raver. He takes everything in his stride and his team talks are calm, he doesn’t do anything rash.

“You’d think the chairmen will bend over backwards to keep him and I hope they do.

“The gaffer took over last season when we weren’t doing too well and he has moulded his team how he wants us to play.

“You can see that we are all in it together 100 per cent and there’s a good discipline and shape about us. Without that, we wouldn’t have come this far.”

City will get around 32,000 tickets for the final – about the same number they took to Wembley in 1996 - which are likely to go on sale from next Wednesday. Details will be confirmed before then once they have been ratified by the Football League.

The club had to submit a strategy regarding ticket sales before the semi-final which has to be sanctioned. Prices will be fixed by Wembley.

Director of operations David Baldwin was part of a three-man City delegation which went to the national stadium last month for a fact-finding mission. All four semi-finalists met with the ticket office and hospitality management teams.

Baldwin said: “Nobody generally expected we would be coming back again. We thought we were on a ground tour!”

Meanwhile, Mark Lawn’s wife wants to attend the final despite just overcoming a serious operation.

Yvonne Lawn has been having a long period of treatment for bowel cancer and was only discharged from hospital on Monday.

City’s joint-chairman said: “She only came out of hospital on the eve of the game so it would not have been right for her to go to Aston Villa after a major operation - but she says she will be there at Wembley.”

* City’s reserve game at Hartlepool was postponed last night because of a frozen pitch – they have not played for over three months.