Meet the Weekend Division Squad Featuring Over 1,800 Premier League Games
What can you improve a excellent veteran squad who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former pro players who have performed at the top tier of club football and international soccer as you pursue additional silverware.
One Manchester club has an non-professional vets team with nine former top-flight players in their present squad.
222 Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
Their roster this season boasts 9 ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 top-flight games.
The elite squad also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
The squad include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight players have secured 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.
Well-Known Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and still goes to their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a