Introduce the Weekend League Squad Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Games
How can you enhance a stellar veteran squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of former professionals who have performed at the elite level of club and international soccer as you aim for additional trophies.
A Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former top-flight footballers in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
The squad list this season boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile team also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
The team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have won 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.
Household Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"Our group literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a