Meet this Weekend Division Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
How can you enhance a excellent experienced side that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have competed at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue more trophies.
One Manchester club boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their active squad.
222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their roster this season features 9 former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances.
This high-profile team also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 international caps.
They feature one forward, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen big trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I thought this is strange 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?
"The people who come and see are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with three victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in over two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a