Discover this Sunday Division Team Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Appearances
What can you enhance a outstanding veteran team who have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the elite level of club and international football as you aim for additional trophies.
One Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
The squad list this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite appearances.
This elite roster also contains over 220 top division goals and 325 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
The roster for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan 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 claimed 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Household Names and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his debut at defender.
"It's a little different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team 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, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a