Meet the Weekend Division Team With 1,800 Premier League Appearances
How do you improve a stellar veteran side that have secured consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 victories from 32 games?
Bring in a collection of former pro players that have performed at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue further honors.
One Greater Manchester side boasts an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Tier.
The lineup this season boasts 9 former top-flight players, with a collective nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
This elite team also boasts over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two win - featuring a half-hour first-half triple.
The squad for this season also includes former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.
Household Names and Global Players
Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"A friend Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those people who turn up and see are happy and to make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth 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 warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England caps.
"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a