Introduce the Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you improve a outstanding veteran squad that have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of ex- pro players that have performed at the highest level of club football and international football as you pursue additional trophies.
One Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their active roster.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.
Their lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.
The star-studded squad also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The squad for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League players have secured 15 big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Players
Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil ahead and had a