Meet the Sunday Division Squad With Over 1,800 Premier League Games
How can you enhance a excellent veteran team who have claimed back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 games?
Bring in a group of former professionals who have competed at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you target additional silverware.
One Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.
The squad list this campaign features nine former Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 elite appearances.
The star-studded team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and over 320 global caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home game versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The team for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have won fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the side in preseason this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his debut at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.
The team are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a