Introduce the Sunday League Club Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
How can you enhance a stellar experienced side who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?
Sign a group of ex- pro players that have performed at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further trophies.
A Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Division.
The lineup this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
This elite team also includes 222 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League players have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The people who come and see are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a