Meet this Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
What do you boost a stellar experienced squad who have won consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the top level of club and international football as you target more silverware.
One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier.
Their roster this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight games.
The star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their last home match against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move 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 continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil up and had a