Meet this Weekend League Squad Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you improve a outstanding experienced side that have claimed back-to-back titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a group of former pro players that have played at the elite level of club and global soccer as you aim for additional honors.
One Manchester club has an non-professional veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their current roster.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 former Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite games.
This star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have secured 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.
Famous Names and Global Players
Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a