BRISTOL'S hierarchy have broken their silence over the club's turbulent fortnight off the field, with Steve Gorvett reassuring supporters the future is "a lot more positive" than many are predicting.

The chief executive has flatly denied Internet rumours and pub whispers suggesting the club is in administration – and said he will meet the players again later this week to talk about next season.

Gorvett put the lack of communication from the top of the club since they failed to win promotion back to the Guinness Premiership down to the uncertainty surrounding the movement of players.

Bristol have already lost Luke Eves, Alex Crockett, Lee Robinson,

Luke Arscott and James Phillips since their Championship play-off final defeat to Exeter two weeks ago – and Gorvett admitted others were "looking at possible moves".

But the chief executive expects a more clear picture to emerge over the next two weeks.

He said: "It is difficult, in that there's a lot of movement with players. Some have already been announced as leaving and some others are looking at possible moves. Until that is resolved over the next few weeks, it is quite difficult to clearly state what is happening.

"Therefore, we have been buying time a little bit to let things settle and see where we are. Then we will move forward. I can't really say a lot more until that becomes a little bit clearer.

"We will be talking to the players again this week, and, hopefully, things will become clearer. But I think it's fair to say it's a lot more positive than some of the stories I have seen.

"It is, however, very difficult to make a clear statement until we do know exactly what we are dealing with. Once we know which players are definitely moving on, then we can work out the budget we have available for the rest of the squad."

After it emerged last week that Bristol's players had been asked to take a 50 per cent pay-cut – or find alternative employment – for next season, rumours had been circulating in the city that the club had entered administration.

But Gorvett said: "I can absolutely assure you the club is not in administration. We are operating and looking to see how we can use the budget available to us to make us the most competitive team we can be in the Championship next season."

Asked whether the club was facing the imminent threat of administration, Gorvett simply said: "No."

Gorvett also defended the club over the widely accepted view that they had no contingency plan for what would happen to their finances if they failed to win promotion back to the Premiership.

He said: "In (chairman) Chris Booy's statement last week, he explained it was a £2.25 million difference in income between the two positions – and reconciling those two easily is not possible in reality. But I think things are moving now and we will be in a position to make things a lot clearer soon."

The chief executive also suggested there was a logical reason for Bristol to postpone the start of pre-season from the originally scheduled date of Monday, June 21.

Head coach Paul Hull admitted last week the start date was "under review" until he had a clearer idea of the make-up of his squad for the 2010-11 campaign – and Gorvett has underlined the need to finish, rather than start, strongly in the Championship.

"We don't even know when the season starts, which is an added problem," he said.

"I think we were initially planning pre-season on the basis of being in the Premiership and the need to start very strongly.

"That is slightly different now, because the Championship is a long-haul season and you need to be focusing more on the end than the beginning. There is logic in delaying the start of pre-season."