Introduce this Weekend Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Games
How do you improve a outstanding veteran squad that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?
Bring in a raft of ex- pro players who have competed at the elite level of club and international football as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
Their squad list this campaign boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League appearances.
This high-profile team also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The team for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have secured fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running 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 running.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a