Ron Vlaar: 'To watch Aston Villa play Alkmaar will be so special for me'

Certainly during his three years playing at Villa, when the primary aim was avoiding relegation. Definitely when the demotion from the Premier League he long feared and fought against occurred in 2016, a year after his departure.

But Villa are now a club transformed and on Thursday night face Alkmaar, the club where Vlaar began and ended his playing career and now works as a youth team coach, in the first of two pivotal Europa Conference League ties.

“I could not be more happy about it,” he smiles. “I only played for three clubs in my career and when I left Villa and they got relegated, there was nothing in my head thinking two clubs I played for would meet in a European game.

“It is really special for me. Villa are in a much better place now and it is so good to see.”

Vlaar will be in attendance at Alkmaar’s AFAS Stadium on Thursday but of perhaps bigger excitement is the return match at Villa Park a fortnight later. It will be just the second time he has been back to the West Midlands since leaving more than eight years ago.

Vlaar, who made most of his 88 Villa appearances as captain, has spoken previously of the frustration he felt during three seasons disrupted by unfortunate injuries and the struggles of the team. It is still there, yet what rapidly becomes clear during a 40-minute chat with the former centre-back is he has no lingering bitterness or regrets.

His affection for Villa is genuine. So too is his pride at having worn the claret and blue shirt.

“I was thinking earlier on the way over here what it means to have played there,” he says. “I am so proud to have been just a small part of Villa’s history. I know it wasn’t a great part of the history but I did my best and gave everything.”

Villa finished 15th in Vlaar’s first two seasons after joining from Feyenoord for £3.2million and then 17th in this final campaign. His last appearance for the club came in the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal.

Even now, Vlaar can vividly remember watching the Gunners beat Wigan in the final week of the 2012-13 season, a result which secured Villa’s safety with a match to spare.

“It was such a weight off the shoulders,” he recalls. “They were tough years because we were fighting relegation. It was stressful for me but I could feel it in the club as well. There were jobs on the line.

“That really did something to me. I didn’t want to get relegated because I knew there were going to be a lot of people who would lose their jobs.

“The people who worked there were fantastic. It was hard on the pitch because we did not win a lot and the way we played wasn’t so good. I’m proud of the fact we didn’t get relegated during my time there.”

Listening to Vlaar talk, it is easy to understand why so many staff who worked for Villa at the time still hold him in such high regard. His sole trip back to the club, in early 2016, was primarily to thank those behind the scenes.

“That was the most important thing to me,” he explains. “The people who work at Bodymoor Heath and Villa Park, they had been amazing. They were three hard years and because I had not properly said goodbye, I had to go back. It felt good for me and I felt they appreciated it a lot.”

Clearly, in Vlaar’s view, clubs are about much more than simply 11 players and a management team.

“There are 11 starters on the pitch and maybe some subs. But how the club is off the field, most of the time it shows on the pitch,” he explains. “A club is like a big, big factory where you need every part, so we can do what we do on the pitch. It is not just the team and the staff, it is the whole club.

“If you win everyone can have a smile and feel better. If we lose we are sad together. That is how I feel and how I tried to live football.”

“You look at Villa now and they are building,” he adds. “Of course, money plays a big part but it also the structure and policy, the youth academy. It is not just the first team but everyone together. That is what is happening now, I feel it.”

Vlaar, capped 32 times by the Netherlands, would play for nearly another six seasons for Alkmaar after leaving Villa. Following retirement in 2021, he joined the club’s youth coaching set-up, initially with the under-17s and now with the under-21s. He enjoys it but this season he has worked part-time, in order to see more of his family.

Aged 38, he admits to not knowing entirely what the future will bring but his outlook is relaxed and coloured by excitement rather than concern.

“I spent 15 years playing football and put everything aside,” he explains. “I feel now being a coach demands more of your time. That is why I decided to have more time for myself and my family this season, to see what it brings.”

In the meantime, there is the small matter of Thursday’s match. Villa might be flying but so are Alkmaar, Pascal Jansen’s team sitting second in the Eredivisie having dropped just two points in their first nine matches.

“When Villa reached Europe I thought: ‘Oh, maybe (they will play AZ). There is just a little chance’,” says Vlaar. “I didn’t see the draw live but I got a text message from a friend straight away. I thought: ‘Wow, it is special’.

“AZ play proper football, they have a plan, an identity. Tactically, they are very good. They are filled with confidence, of course, with all the wins in their back pocket.

“It looks good but it is the same for Villa and the Premier League is the stronger league.

“It’s a massive game for both teams. For me, Villa are favourites to be top of the table and I think AZ has a good chance to go through.

“It’s a big test for AZ to play against Villa in such good form. They had the experience against West Ham last year but Villa is a different level to that now. I am curious how we deal with the intensity and the pressure and the qualities of Villa.”

For Vlaar, retirement from playing has brought time for reflection. He describes a recent trip to watch the Dutch national team, where he sat behind the tunnel as the players walked out.

“Suddenly it was like I was seeing it through the eyes of my parents,” he says. “I thought: ‘Wow, this is what they experienced all the time they were watching me’. I sat there watching the players come out and I was there on the pitch.

“It is not normal. It is a dream for a lot of players and I have been there and done that.

“I have been imagining what it will be like to go back to Villa. Going back to the stadium and just standing there, it gives me a really special feeling.

“I had fun in my career but the next game is just around the corner. You don’t have the time to take it in. I can do that now and I just think: ‘Wow’. Villa is such a big club, big history and I am really happy to have been a part of it.”