“The future perfect is a verb form or construction used to describe an event that is expected or planned to happen before a time of reference in the future, such as will have finished in the English sentence “I will have finished by tomorrow.” It is a grammatical combination of the future tense, or other marking of future time, and the perfect, a grammatical aspect that views an event as prior and completed.” (Cambridge University Press)

Mark three years in the calendar: 2015, 2016 and 2017. The information about Atleti seems to be fast forwarding from the problems of the past to a brighter day after tomorrow. Two pieces of news on Wednesday attracted attention, as they referred to the good things yet to come.

The contracts

On the one hand, the club announced Miranda’s contract extension through 2016. Miranda joins the club of 10 players who have seen their contract end date moved to a future date that make us hope that the days of improvising and last minute desperate summer signings are coming to an end.

2016 (three seasons from now) will see Gabi, Adrián, Asenjo, Koke, Falcao (wouldn’t bet my salary on this one), Cebolla, Insúa and now Miranda end their current contracts as Colchoneros.

2017 is the year Mario and Filipe’s contracts run out (the maximum contract length according to FIFA standards).

Even the cantera is being sealed into the long term plans. Both Oliver (2017) and Saúl Ñiguez (2016) have long term agreements to remain in red and white.

As you can see, half the the team are currently tied to Atleti’s long term plans. Others who have been top performers in previous seasons or are part of Simeone’s field lieutenants, like Juanfran or Raúl García, are likely to be offered an extension. Last in this huge and unprecedented list of long term deals was the highly celebrated ‘Cholo’ Simeone (and his coaching staff) contract extension until 2017. That will be the base to forge the Atleti of the years to come.

Long term is a term we longed for here, so the future on this front looks brighter than ever now.



The training facilities

Alcorcón’s mayor David Pérez had a long chat with AS journalists Jorge García and Juan Casáñez. In the interview not only did the politician not dodge tricky questions relating to Atlético’s future training grounds, but faced them head on and endorsed the whole operation as feasible and strategic for the Eurovegas Casino operation as we already theorised in our February piece on Eurovegas. Alcorcón warmly welcomes Atlético to feel at home there.

The mayor kicks off the interview assuring fans that the Eurovegas operation will actually help Atleti’s plan to finally develop their training facilities in the shared part of land where the Sands Corp. resorts are planned. Both projects will benefit from a new strategic city planning law recently passed that overrides legal issues that kept Atlético’s (and Eurovegas’) initial plans stalled. Therefore, the months to come should see the whole operation get green-lighted.

When asked for a specific date of completion, David Pérez is more cautious than Miguel Angel Gil or Enrique Cerezo ever have been. Mr. Perez states that it will be Atlético’s call to decide when and how fast to develop the project but that the grounds could feasibly be completed by 2015 (up to two years before Eurovegas is expected to be finished in 2017).

Benefiting from the boost in infrastructure, public transport and available building options now open to Atlético, the most ambitious plans the club had sought for the Alcorcón grounds could come true: a world class golf course, a bigger than initially planned academy stadium to host not only B-team matches but concerts as well, a themed shopping mall, and more.

Above all and after reading Mayor Perez’ statements, one gets the feeling that the Sands Corporation and Atlético Madrid have been in talks for months and that they seemed to have ironed out a joint partnership in the shared Alcorcón space that could bring very profitable benefits for the Rojiblancos in the years to come.