Discover the Sunday League Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Matches
How do you improve a stellar experienced team that have won back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?
Sign a raft of former pro players that have played at the elite tier of club and international soccer as you aim for additional trophies.
A Manchester club fields an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Division.
The lineup this campaign features 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined over 1,800 elite matches.
This high-profile team also contains over 220 Premier League scores and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger 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.
Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Players
Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for Everton and even now attends their home games, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed 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 the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"Our side held our own for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 ahead and had a