Discover the Weekend League Club Boasting Over 1,800 Top-Flight Appearances
How do you improve a stellar veteran team who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two games?
Recruit a raft of ex- pro players who have played at the highest level of club football and international football as you target additional silverware.
One Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans team with 9 ex- Premier League players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Tier.
Their lineup this campaign features nine former Premier League players, with a collective nearly 1,800 elite games.
This high-profile team also boasts 222 top division scores and over 320 global appearances.
They include one forward, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
The roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of around £123 million.
Household Names and International Stars
Ireland started playing for the side in preseason this season through good friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen told me 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"Then he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"Those fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give a day if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"The running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Feeling
Along with Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three wins from three and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has over 60 England appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"We went 1-0 up and had a