Introduce the Sunday League Club With Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
How do you improve a outstanding veteran team who have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Bring in a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you pursue more silverware.
A Manchester club has an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.
Their squad list this season boasts nine ex- top-flight players, with a combined nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The high-profile team also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.
The squad include one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this season through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their strip.
"My mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Experience
Along with the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 up and had a