Meet the Weekend League Squad With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How can you boost a stellar veteran squad who have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 games?
Recruit a raft of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you pursue additional silverware.
A Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current squad.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
The squad list this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 elite appearances.
This star-studded squad also boasts 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, 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'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a