Introduce the Sunday Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
What do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have competed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you aim for further honors.
One Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.
Their roster this season features 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League games.
The high-profile squad also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps.
The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a