Meet the Sunday League Club With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Games
How do you improve a excellent experienced team that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double with thirty wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a group of ex- pro players that have competed at the highest level of club and international soccer as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester side has an non-professional veterans squad with 9 former Premier League players in their current roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Top Division.
Their lineup this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League games.
This star-studded roster also contains 222 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.
They feature one forward, who netted 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The squad for this season also includes ex- professionals such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the former Premier League players have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Household Figures and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team in pre-season this summer through good friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those fans who come and watch are happy and to make someone's day if they watch us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at the club, he made his debut at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"That movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League matches.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"Our side held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents 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 second fixture."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Tier championship last season, together with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a