Introduce the Weekend League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
How can you boost a excellent veteran side that have claimed back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a collection of ex- professionals who have performed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you aim for additional silverware.
One Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional veterans team with nine former Premier League footballers in their current roster.
222 Premier League Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.
The squad list this season includes nine ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.
The high-profile squad also contains 222 Premier League goals and over 320 international caps.
The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 scores in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for ÂŁ9m from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field match against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The team for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 big honors and moved for total transfer sums of about ÂŁ123m.
Household Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team in pre-season this season through close friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced former Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally haven't stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate veterans team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a