Discover the Sunday League Squad Boasting Over 1,800 Premier League Matches
What can you boost a excellent experienced squad who have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a raft of former professionals that have competed at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.
A Manchester team has an non-professional vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Top Tier.
The squad list this season boasts nine former top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 top-flight appearances.
The high-profile squad also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their most recent home-field match against defending title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen major honors and moved for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Names and International Players
Stephen Ireland started playing for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those spectators who come and see are pleased and to give a day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse made his debut at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan defender 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 Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred Premier League matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said the player.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really have not stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"We scored one-nil up and had a