Discover this Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
How can you boost a stellar veteran squad that have claimed consecutive titles, including a double triumph boasting thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of ex- pro players who have competed at the top tier of club and global football as you aim for further honors.
One Greater Manchester club has an amateur vets squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their present squad.
222 Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
Their squad list this season includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.
This elite team also includes over 220 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a 6-2 win - featuring a 32-minute opening period triple.
The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight players have secured 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer sums of around £123m.
Well-Known Names and Global Stars
Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We really haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Premier Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a