Discover this Weekend Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
How can you enhance a stellar experienced team who have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a group of former professionals that have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for further trophies.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 former Premier League players in their present squad.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.
The roster this season features 9 former top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
This star-studded squad also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 international caps.
They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field game against defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Household Figures and International Players
Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise 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 play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a