Discover the Weekend Division Squad With 1,800 Premier League Games
What can you enhance a stellar experienced team that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of former professionals who have performed at the top level of club and global soccer as you pursue more trophies.
One Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are situated in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
The squad list this season includes 9 former Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite games.
This star-studded roster also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home-field match against defending champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
The roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Household Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and see are pleased and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a