Meet the Weekend Division Squad With 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What can you improve a excellent veteran squad that have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a collection of ex- professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club and global football as you target additional trophies.
One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
Their squad list this campaign features 9 former Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 Premier League matches.
This high-profile roster also boasts 222 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured 15 major honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a