Introduce the Sunday League Club With 1,800 Premier League Matches
What can you boost a excellent veteran squad who have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with 30 victories from thirty-two games?
Sign a raft of former pro players that have competed at the top tier of club and global football as you aim for more honors.
A Manchester club has an amateur veterans team with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are located in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their squad list this season features nine ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.
The elite roster also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.
The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home game against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - including a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The squad for this season also features former professionals such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former Premier League footballers have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Household Figures and Global Players
Ireland started turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"Those spectators who turn up and see are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."
So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at defender.
"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit five on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than 200 Premier League games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a