Discover the Weekend Division Squad Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What do you improve a stellar veteran team that have secured consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a collection of former pro players who have played at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you pursue more trophies.
One Greater Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- Premier League players in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
The roster this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite appearances.
The star-studded roster also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their most recent home game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen major trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a