Meet this Sunday League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
How do you boost a excellent experienced side that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with 30 wins from 32 matches?
Sign a collection of former professionals who have performed at the highest tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional trophies.
A Greater Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their active squad.
222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are located in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.
Their squad list this campaign boasts 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
The elite squad also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match against reigning champions their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123m.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still goes to their home games, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still love football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his debut at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"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 twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets team, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a