Meet the Weekend League Squad Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Games
What do you enhance a outstanding experienced team that have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a group of former professionals who have performed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for further trophies.
A Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
The squad list this season features 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 top-flight matches.
The high-profile team also includes 222 Premier League goals and over 320 global appearances.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - featuring a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of about £123 million.
Household Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team in pre-season this summer through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"It's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against former Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the opposition vets team, who won the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 up and had a