Introduce the Weekend League Club Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Games
How do you boost a outstanding veteran squad that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target further silverware.
A Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Tier.
Their lineup this season features nine former Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 elite matches.
The high-profile team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.
The squad include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who come and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over two hundred Premier League games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a