Introduce this Sunday League Team Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How do you boost a outstanding veteran team who have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of ex- pro players that have competed at the top tier of club and international soccer as you target additional trophies.
A Greater Manchester side fields an amateur vets team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active roster.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 top-flight games.
The high-profile roster also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for the team in their most recent home game versus defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to give a day if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a