Introduce this Sunday League Squad Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Matches
How do you enhance a stellar experienced squad that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 games?
Recruit a raft of former pro players who have performed at the highest level of club football and international soccer as you target additional honors.
One Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.
The lineup this season features nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile team also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.
They include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured 15 big honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in preseason this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with Cisse's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a