Introduce the Weekend Division Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Appearances
How do you boost a outstanding veteran side who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a collection of former professionals who have performed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for further trophies.
One Manchester side has an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.
222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.
Their lineup this campaign boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight matches.
This elite team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Players
Ireland started playing for the side during preseason this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a