Introduce the Weekend League Team With 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
How can you improve a stellar veteran team who have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of former pro players who have played at the elite tier of club football and international football as you pursue additional trophies.
A Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with 9 former Premier League players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.
The roster this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
The high-profile squad also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home-field game against defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
The squad for this campaign also includes former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight players have secured fifteen big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a