Discover the Sunday Division Club Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you improve a outstanding experienced squad who have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have competed at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you aim for additional honors.
One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 elite appearances.
The elite squad also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still love the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Unreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a