Introduce this Sunday Division Squad Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
How do you improve a excellent veteran squad that have secured back-to-back titles, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 games?
Bring in a collection of former professionals who have competed at the top level of club and global soccer as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League players in their active lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps
The team Vets Over 35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Tier.
The lineup this season features 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 elite matches.
This star-studded team also contains 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global appearances.
They feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
The squad for this campaign also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 significant trophies and moved for combined transfer sums of around £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and Global Players
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this season through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited additional former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'come and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who turn up and watch are happy and to make a day if they see us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the joy of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse made his first game at defender.
"That's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
'Surreal Scenario
In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in more than two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Heskey got on and he's has over 60 English appearances.
"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really haven't ceased talking about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Division championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 ahead and had a