Introduce this Sunday League Team Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games
How can you improve a stellar experienced team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you pursue additional silverware.
A Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their lineup this season boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.
This star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Well-Known Names and Global Stars
Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a