Introduce this Weekend League Club Boasting Over 1,800 English Top Division Games
How do you enhance a outstanding veteran team that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a group of former pro players who have played at the elite level of club football and international soccer as you aim for more honors.
One Manchester team has an non-professional vets team with 9 former top-flight players in their current squad.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their squad list this season features 9 ex- Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 elite appearances.
This star-studded squad also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who scored thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former top-flight players have secured fifteen big trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.
Household Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"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 thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and watch are pleased and to make someone's moment if they see us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's has 60-odd English appearances.
"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group literally have not stopped talking 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 facing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second match."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, along with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil up and had a