Meet this Weekend Division Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you improve a outstanding veteran side who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?
Recruit a raft of ex- professionals who have played at the highest level of club and international soccer as you target further silverware.
A Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their active squad.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.
Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a collective over 1,800 Premier League games.
The elite team also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
The squad for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Household Names and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I say this is strange 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?
"Those spectators who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil up and had a