Introduce the Weekend League Team Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Games
How can you improve a outstanding veteran squad who have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former pro players that have performed at the top tier of club and international soccer as you aim for additional honors.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
The squad list this campaign boasts nine ex- top-flight players, with a collective over 1,800 elite games.
This elite team also boasts over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
They include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees 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.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123m.
Famous Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, 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 watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a