Discover this Sunday Division Club With 1,800 Premier League Games
How do you improve a stellar veteran team that have claimed consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 games?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players who have performed at the top level of club football and international soccer as you aim for further trophies.
One Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.
The lineup this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a combined 1,801 top-flight matches.
This star-studded squad also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward 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 claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Household Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a team 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 football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The fans who come and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they see us competing 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 the club, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 England caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a