Introduce the Sunday Division Team With Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances
How do you boost a stellar experienced team that have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a collection of ex- pro players who have played at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target more trophies.
One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their present squad.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.
Their lineup this season includes 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.
This high-profile squad also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The roster for this season also features former professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.
Household Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during pre-season this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who turn up and see are happy and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 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 mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a