Introduce this Weekend Division Squad Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games
What do you enhance a stellar experienced squad that have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- pro players that have played at the top level of club and international soccer as you aim for further silverware.
One Manchester club has an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their present lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Premier Division.
The lineup this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 elite games.
The high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
They feature one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen big honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Famous Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who come and watch are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy 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 keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition veterans side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a