Discover the Weekend League Team With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
What can you improve a excellent veteran team who have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the highest tier of club and international football as you pursue further trophies.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League footballers in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
Their lineup this season includes 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League appearances.
The elite team also contains 222 top division scores and 325 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Household Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought 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 choose?
"The fans who come and see are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 up and had a