Meet the Weekend Division Team Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
How do you improve a stellar experienced team who have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from 32 games?
Recruit a collection of former professionals who have played at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target more silverware.
One Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with nine former Premier League players in their active lineup.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Vets Over 35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their lineup this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a combined over 1,800 top-flight games.
The high-profile squad also contains over 220 Premier League goals and 325 global appearances.
They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also features former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have won 15 big honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Famous Names and Global Players
Ireland began turning out for the team during preseason this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who come and watch are happy and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I think I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a