Discover the Weekend League Club With 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
What can you improve a stellar experienced squad that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club football and international football as you target additional honors.
A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.
Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight games.
The star-studded team also includes 222 top division scores and 325 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123m.
Household Figures and International Stars
Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and see are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a