Discover the Weekend League Team With 1,800 Premier League Appearances
What can you enhance a stellar veteran side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Sign a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite level of club and international soccer as you target more honors.
One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their present roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.
The roster this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite matches.
The high-profile team also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, 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 January 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
The squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed 15 big honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Household Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that 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!
"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he made his debut at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a