Introduce the Sunday League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How do you enhance a outstanding veteran team who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a raft of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club football and international football as you aim for more honors.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Tier.
The roster this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight matches.
This elite roster also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and see are happy and to give a moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a