Meet this Sunday Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How can you enhance a excellent experienced side that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Sign a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top level of club and international soccer as you aim for more honors.
One Manchester team fields an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
The lineup this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.
The elite team also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.
They feature one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their most recent home match against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English appearances.
"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a