Pat Lam has reassured Bristol fans that the Bears will be competitive next season following a report claiming they have faced difficulties balancing the books.
Bristol last week issued a statement insisting they will continue to operate under the salary cap, which has been reduced from £6.4million to £5million for the 2021-22 campaign.
It was in response to a claim that the club were being forced to offload key players such as Bath-bound Dave Attwood due to an administrative error involving the contracts of six players.
Attwood will departing Ashton Gate at the end of the season along with former England number eight Nathan Hughes, who is joining Clermont.
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But Lam points to the signing of England loosehead prop Ellis Genge, USA international fly-half AJ MacGinty, Scotland backrower Magnus Bradbury, fly-half James Williams and former Harlequins winger Gabriel Ibitoye, as well the retention of key players Harry Randall and Chris Vui, as evidence of their ambition for 2022-23.
“Everyone knows I do the majority of my main work before January,” the director of rugby said. “That’s when Gabriel was done, James Williams was done.
“It was done a lot earlier, we just hold announcements until the appropriate time. With the majority of our main work all done, the team and squad will be improved and be stronger.
“The club put the statement out to give our supporters absolute clarity. Everyone was worried about our squad, a ‘fire sale’ and stuff like that came out.
“So the message to the fans is, ‘Don’t worry, there’s no problem with the salary cap and don’t worry about the strength of the squad’.
“It will be improved and you’ve already seen that with Ellis Genge (signing), Harry Randall committing for four years, Chris Vui committing for four years, James and Gabriel joining. All of this was done way before. It’s business as usual.”
On Monday the Bears also confirmed the signings of British Universities front row trio Fred Davies, Martin Mulhall and Rhy Charalambous. Hooker Davies is the leading try scorer in the BUCS Super League for the University of Durham, while loosehead prop Mulhall has represented Ireland Students.
