Discover this Weekend League Team Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How do you improve a excellent experienced team who have secured back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the elite level of club and international football as you target more silverware.
A Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.
222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.
Their roster this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.
This star-studded roster also contains over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have secured 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who come and watch are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting 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 seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a