Meet this Weekend League Squad Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances
How do you enhance a excellent veteran squad that have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a collection of former pro players that have performed at the top level of club football and global football as you target additional trophies.
A Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their active squad.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
Their roster this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight games.
This star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for 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 all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight players have secured fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of around ÂŁ123m.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a