Discover the Weekend League Club Featuring Over 1,800 English Top Division Matches
What can you enhance a excellent experienced team that have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players who have played at the top level of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies.
One Manchester club fields an amateur veterans squad with nine former Premier League players in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Tier.
The lineup this season includes 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The star-studded roster also includes 222 top division goals and 325 international caps.
The squad include one forward, who netted 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Household Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a