SO, the future of English football is bleak, right?

George Reynolds reckons clubs will go to the wall this season.

More clubs than ever have been in administration in the last 12 months.

Bradford City, a Premiership team as recently as 15 months ago, were teetering on the brink of folding until last week.

And the value of the 23 British clubs on the Stock Exchange has plummeted by £539m, or 43 per cent, in a year.

Yet the men who make a living from studying the world of football and money insist fears of an apocalyptic future are misplaced.

The Premiership, English football's cash cow, is still booming, despite fears they will receive far less from the next Sky TV deal.

The Nationwide League clubs have been able to adjust quickly to the loss of the ITV Digital contract, although there will be much fretting over the future of some sides before the storm passes.

And crowds, the most obvious barometer of football's popularity across the country, have been on an upward curve in all four divisions ever since the formation of the Premier League in 1992.

So, when the new season begins today, fans should concentrate on events on the pitch rather than the financial chicanery behind the scenes.

Gerry Boon, who compiles Deloitte and Touche's annual review of football finance, said: "Life has been a week-to-week struggle for 95 per cent of Division Two and Three clubs for a number of years.

"In the 2000-01 season, the Football League clubs suffered an increase in operating losses for the fourth season running.

"The future will be just as challenging but football will go on.

"It has in the past showed, and will in the future show, surprising resilience."

Such optimism is echoed by Soccer Investor editor Oliver Butler, despite the miserable share results in a year that saw three clubs - Bradford City, Nottingham Forest and Gillingham - leave the Stock Exchange.

He said: "Clubs shouldn't be complacent, and they aren't, but in the past they've got through and there's no reason to believe they won't do so again.

"I've lost count of the number of times clubs are supposedly going to go bust but they haven't done so.

"The gap between the Premiership and the First Division is greater than ever but the clubs are becoming more circumspect in their spending.

"If Premiership clubs give players three or four-year contracts, they're being careful about how much they commit themselves to spending because there's no guarantee of how much the next TV deal will be worth.

"Wages are going down because of supply and demand.

"While superstars' wages will be unaffected, the journeymen will have to watch out because there are so many unemployed players willing to come in at a fraction of what they might want."