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Search forCorin plays down fears for Bristol
Friday, November 21, 2008, 08:00
Bristol general manager Palmer is confident of achieving the £2million to £2.5million annual investment his club appealed for earlier this week, citing the need to start competing with the Guinness Premiership's top clubs.
Bristol, whose playing budget is £1million below the Premier Rugby salary cap, are eager to give head coach Richard Hill the £4million budget he feels is necessary to challenge the leading clubs. And Palmer sees no reason why the club should not attract ambitious new backers in the near future.
"There will always be rugby in Bristol, but we are not even contemplating that," said Palmer. "It is not even a contemplation – we are looking forward to achieving the resource and taking the club right up to where it wants to be.
"What we really need is some additional investment to take the club where it rightfully should be and where we all aspire to be.
"That means competing domestically year on year for silverware in the Premiership but also being a significant force in Europe. Everyone is entitled to an opinion but the bottom line is that we are extremely excited at the moment.
"We know we have set ourselves up for people to have opinions, but I would say that 90 per cent of the feedback we have had since Wednesday has been positive."
But writing in his Daily Press column, Bristolian Chilcott, the former England and Bath prop who is now a successful businessman, says he believes the club's future is much bleaker than those at the top are claiming.
"The official stance from Bristol is that they are not in any trouble financially and they are looking for investors simply to move the club on," he said.
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