Discover the Weekend League Squad Featuring 1,800 English Top Division Games
What do you improve a stellar experienced side who have secured back-to-back titles, including a double triumph with 30 wins from thirty-two games?
Recruit a group of former professionals who have played at the highest level of club and international soccer as you aim for further silverware.
A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Top Tier.
Their squad list this campaign includes 9 former top-flight footballers, with a total 1,801 elite appearances.
The elite squad also contains 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.
The roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League footballers have claimed fifteen significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented the striker.
"After that he told me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - 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.
"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Scenario
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Division with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who features on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over 200 Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who secured the Top Division title last season, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a