Meet the Weekend Division Club With Nearly Two Thousand English Top Division Appearances
How can you boost a stellar experienced side who have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players who have played at the elite level of club football and global soccer as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.
Their lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League games.
The high-profile team also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a half-hour first-half hat-trick.
The roster for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley 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 winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Everton kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love the game and you know you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"The spectators who come and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move 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 continue running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Unreal Scenario
In addition to the forward's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 up and had a