Introduce the Weekend League Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you enhance a stellar experienced side that have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?
Sign a group of former professionals that have played at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you target further honors.
A Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their present roster.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
This star-studded squad also contains 222 top division scores and 325 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The squad for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have secured fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they see 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."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"We competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a