Introduce the Weekend League Club With Over 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
What do you improve a excellent experienced squad that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of ex- pro players who have played at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you aim for additional trophies.
One Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.
Their lineup this campaign boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a collective over 1,800 elite games.
This elite squad also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 global caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Players
Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his debut at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a