Meet the Weekend League Club With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games
What do you improve a outstanding veteran squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a raft of former professionals that have played at the top level of club and international football as you aim for additional silverware.
A Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets team with nine ex- top-flight players in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
Their roster this campaign features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
The elite roster also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this summer through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a