Meet the Weekend League Club Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
What do you enhance a stellar veteran squad that have secured back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals who have competed at the top tier of club and global football as you target more honors.
A Greater Manchester team boasts an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League players in their present squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Division.
The lineup this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League appearances.
The high-profile roster also includes 222 top division goals and over 320 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour opening period triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also made his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The fans who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the joy of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit different but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.
"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, 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'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a