Meet this Weekend Division Team Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
How do you enhance a stellar experienced squad who have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 games?
Recruit a group of former professionals that have competed at the top level of club football and international football as you aim for further trophies.
A Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
The lineup this season includes 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite appearances.
The star-studded roster also boasts over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have won 15 major honors and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this season through good friend and present team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little starstruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a