Discover this Weekend League Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you improve a excellent experienced side who have won consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players who have played at the top tier of club and international football as you target additional silverware.
A Manchester club fields an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight players in their present lineup.
222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.
The lineup this campaign boasts nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite appearances.
This elite roster also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a