Meet this Weekend League Club With Over 1,800 English Top Division Matches
How do you improve a stellar veteran team that have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals that have performed at the highest tier of club and global soccer as you aim for further trophies.
One Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.
Their roster this season features nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.
The high-profile team also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder 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.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have won 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred Premier League games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a