Discover the Sunday League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Appearances
How do you improve a excellent veteran team who have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from thirty-two matches?
Bring in a collection of ex- professionals that have competed at the top level of club football and global football as you target further silverware.
A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur vets squad with nine ex- top-flight players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, 325 International Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets Division Top Division.
The roster this season boasts 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
This elite team also includes 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home match against reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The team for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former top-flight players have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team in preseason this season through close friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland midfielder then invited additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen told me 'come and play, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw 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 fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us having somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd English caps.
"We held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a