Meet this Weekend League Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you boost a excellent experienced squad who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top level of club and global soccer as you target more silverware.
A Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their current squad.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
The lineup this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
The high-profile roster also includes 222 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The team for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a