Time for Villa to write new European chapter - Spink
- Published
Nigel Spink believes it is time Aston Villa's European Cup is "moved along the shelf" to make room for more silverware.
Villa face Freiburg in the Europa League final in Istanbul on Wednesday, aiming to win their first major European trophy since 1982.
Goalkeeper Spink was an early substitute in the final, replacing the injured Jimmy Rimmer, when Villa beat Bayern Munich 1-0 in Rotterdam to win the European Cup.
Villa have not won a major trophy for 30 years - the 1996 League Cup being their most recent success - and Spink wants the wait to be over.
"I felt like it was time for the European Cup to be moved along the shelf a little bit to make room for another European trophy and I'm so pleased we've got an opportunity to do that," he told BBC Sport.
"I know we're one step away still but if we do beat Freiburg then there'll be nobody more pleased than me to see that another crop of players having achieved European glory for the mighty club."
Spink's European Cup appearance was just his second-ever game for Villa and he went onto play 460 times for the club, also winning the 1994 League Cup.
He remained with Villa as they were relegated to the Second Division in 1987, just five years after being crowned kings of Europe.
"We got to a point, as a club, where we competed at the same level as the likes of Liverpool but it didn't step on. It wasn't embraced I feel, for whatever reason.
"The squad that played in 1981-82 should have been a larger part of the workforce, either playing or coaching at Villa.
"It [the European victory] should have been embraced more at boardroom level.
"We know it goes in cycles, that's the way it is, but you've got to make the effort to keep it there and we just totally declined as a club. We went through hell really for five years after coming out of the European Cup the following year against Juventus.
"Then we beat Barcelona in the Super Cup [in 1983] but after that period there was a definite decline of standards on the pitch on a Saturday afternoon. As a player having done what you did, you don't have control over what the ownership do."
