Aston Villa blogger Matthew Turvey was painted a sobering picture of how times have changed after meeting a member of the club’s European Cup winning team of 1982.

This week, I had the pleasure of sitting down at Villa Park in the company of a few of our club’s former players.

And having a chance to sit down for an hour-and-a-half in the North Stand suite with these players got me thinking.

You see, one of the ex-players I was talking to was one of the 1982 European Cup winning team. A legend in my eyes, and here he was, sipping coffee with me.

Honoured doesn’t even cover it. After all, here was a guy who represented Villa at the highest level, won things, and was still approachable.

Granted, this was from a different era, in a time where finishing your football career didn’t mean sitting on a yacht with just an occasional golf game to fit in.

On the contrary, these were men who finished up their time beating the best teams in Europe and settled into normal life.

Running businesses, sitting in offices, working on projects. Working didn’t stop after football. It carried on, just like most of us who have got past 30.

However, more than just earning less money than today’s counterparts, there was something different about my conversations with these players.

There was passion, pride, and commitment to the cause of Aston Villa. There was open conversation, not today’s careful management of millionaires.

Don’t get me wrong, I understand why we have the system that we do now, so this isn’t a criticism as such, but it can be frustrating for fans.

You very rarely are able to sit and have a drink with many of today’s players, after all Which leads me on to my next point.

How can we, as a club, communicate better with the fans? One only needs to look on Twitter, Facebook and on fan sites to see that the fans aren’t happy.

They aren’t happy because nothing ever comes out of Villa Park that the average fan can understand.

It’s, for the most part, a stonewall silence, barring letters accompanying season tickets that detail financials.

I can assure you that, whilst that information is of interest to me, it isn’t really what the average fan wants to know.

Hearing that passion, that interest from winners in our past made me want to hear that from people who have pride in our club and who see them as more than just an increased wage packet and a shop window to the top four.

Of course, I respect that players want to achieve success. Who doesn’t after all and, yes, their football career is shorter than yours or mine. You’re not going to see players playing at 60 for Villa, that’s for sure.

So, in the fleeting moment that a football career is contained within, I want more players on the lines of Gabriel Agbonlahor.

A man who is both a Villa fan and who shows time and time again the effort he puts into his game out of commitment.

A player who, in his scoring his 50th goal for Villa showed commitment, passion and real pride in what the badge means.

A player who, sadly, had his feat overshadowed by 16 photos of Darren Bent tapping in the third goal of the game.

I’m not sure that really is how commitment and passion should be repaid, otherwise it’s no wonder it’s lacking.

Perhaps I can only dream of this ideology, what with football being what it is, a multi-billion pound industry that has come to see corporate sponsorship as it’s life support.

Thus clubs have to operate, understandably, as a business.

However, unlike a run-of-the-mill business, the club has thousands of people paying money to watch the team and, amongst some fans at least, some clearly aren’t happy with the product displayed.

Looking back on my meeting with those players, it reminded me what made me so proud to be a Villa fan as a kid – the passion.

Once that is shown throughout the team, manager, board and fans, I am sure everything else will follow.

Anyway, if you do want to see some passion, to meet and speak to some of the players who used to play for us in a competitive fixture, you can see the Aston Villa Old Stars.

They will be at Boldmere St Michaels FC, Church Road, B73 5RY, with kick off at 1:30pm on Sunday.

The team is likely to include Ken McNaught, Mark Walters, Gareth Farrelly, Steve Staunton and Lee Hendrie.

You can also follow Villa blogger Matthew Turvey at his own site, http://www.astonvillalife.com.