Introduce the Weekend Division Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How do you boost a excellent veteran squad who have won back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of former professionals that have performed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you pursue further silverware.
A Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are located in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
Their squad list this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight games.
This high-profile team also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They include one forward, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight footballers have won fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England caps.
"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a