Discover this Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Premier League Matches
How do you improve a stellar veteran team who have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Bring in a collection of former professionals who have played at the elite level of club football and global football as you aim for additional trophies.
A Manchester club fields an amateur veterans team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present roster.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.
Their roster this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite games.
This high-profile squad also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The squad for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have won fifteen big trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a