Meet the Sunday League Team Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you improve a outstanding experienced team who have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two games?
Sign a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top level of club and international football as you aim for further silverware.
One Greater Manchester team has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- Premier League players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.
Their roster this season includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
The high-profile squad also includes over 220 top division goals and 325 international caps.
They feature one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment if they see us playing 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."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three games for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a