Introduce this Sunday League Squad Featuring Over 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How do you improve a excellent veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Bring in a raft of former pro players that have played at the elite tier of club and international football as you aim for more honors.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight players in their present lineup.
222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.
The lineup this season features 9 former Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 top-flight matches.
The elite roster also contains over 220 top division scores and 325 global appearances.
The squad feature one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of about £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this summer through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen told me 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and see are pleased and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I love sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Scenario
Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a