Meet this Weekend League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How do you improve a stellar experienced squad who have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?
Sign a collection of former professionals that have performed at the top level of club and global football as you target more silverware.
One Manchester team boasts an amateur vets squad with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
Their roster this season features nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.
This star-studded team also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a six-two win - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured 15 significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Household Figures and International Stars
Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top 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, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil up and had a