Discover the Weekend League Squad With 1,800 Premier League Appearances
What can you boost a excellent experienced side who have won back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?
Sign a group of ex- pro players who have played at the elite tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for additional silverware.
A Manchester team has an non-professional vets team with nine ex- Premier League players in their current lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Tier.
Their roster this season features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.
The star-studded squad also contains over 220 top division goals and over 320 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The team for this season also features former pros such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Household Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in 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 defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil up and had a