Meet the Sunday Division Team With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
How can you improve a excellent veteran team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have played at the highest level of club football and global football as you aim for more silverware.
One Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.
Their squad list this season boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The elite squad also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
They feature one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
The team for this campaign also includes former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a