Introduce the Weekend League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
What can you improve a stellar experienced team who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a collection of former pro players who have played at the top level of club and global soccer as you aim for additional silverware.
One Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight footballers in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
Their roster this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
The elite team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have secured 15 major honors and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and Global Players
Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - 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 seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a