NICKY Little is ready to link up with his new Bristol team-mates for pre-season training – and believes the club's off-field dramas can help bring the players closer together.

Fiji fly-half Little signed a two-year contract with Bristol in February – and has vowed to honour that deal despite his new club's failure to return to the Guinness Premiership.

Equally, the 33-year-old has sought reassurances, through his agent, that the contract he signed in good faith earlier this year will still be valid.

With Bristol's players being asked to take 50 per cent pay-cuts in the wake of their Championship play-off final defeat to Exeter, questions had been raised as to whether Little's transfer from Bath would still go ahead.

But the experienced playmaker has received encouraging messages from the Bristol hierarchy – and fully expects to be on the training field at Clifton RFC when pre-season kicks off on Monday. "As far as I am concerned, next week I will be a Bristol player," said Little. "I am really excited about meeting the boys and getting on with the easy bit, which is the rugby.

"And I am sure that whatever game is being played by the suits behind the scenes will make us as players even closer and stronger together.

"I signed for two years and I plan to arrive at Bristol next week and do what I put my name down on the paper to do. I am not the sort of guy who pulls out of something because things go badly – that is not what I am about.

"When the guys lost to Exeter, I rang my agent straightaway and he said to Bristol, 'look, we have had this deal in place for four months – whether you are promoted or not'. My agent has since given me the reassurances I needed about the move to Bristol.

"It will be hard next season, for sure, but as players, once we cross that white line, we are here to play rugby. You can't think about anything else.

"I am sure the boys will stick together and we will have a good team spirit and give everything to the challenge in front of us."

Bristol chief executive Steve Gorvett has been meeting with the club's players again this week in an attempt to finalise the squad for next season.

Several players – including Darren Crompton, Roy Winters and Jack Adams – are understood to have already agreed revised contracts.

The club also remain hopeful of persuading Iain Grieve to stay on for another season, although the future of players such as Tom Arscott, Adrian Jarvis and Jason Spice remains unclear.

Gorvett said: "By Wednesday or Thursday of this week, we hope to be able to come out with a full statement as to where we are with everybody.

"The academy is ring-fenced and untouched, so I will be talking about the senior players. Some have re-signed, some more will re-sign and there are a few we are still in negotiations with.

"It will be a lot more positive than perhaps was initially thought – and we are getting closer to making that statement."

Little, meanwhile, has revealed how he asked Bristol what would happen to his move – in the event of them failing to win promotion – before he put pen to paper.

"I signed a two-year deal – and, at the time, I brought up the issue of what would happen if they didn't make it," he said.

"They told me, 'We are sure we will make the Premiership, but, if we don't, then there are no worries'. Personally, I turned down a few good offers elsewhere, knowing I had signed for Bristol."