Introduce this Sunday League Team With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Matches
How can you enhance a excellent experienced team who have won back-to-back titles, including a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a group of ex- pro players who have performed at the highest level of club football and global football as you target more silverware.
One Greater Manchester side fields an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Division.
Their roster this campaign includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite appearances.
The elite team also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 global caps.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home-field match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.
Wythenshawe's roster for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
In total, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 major trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Household Names and International Players
Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy football 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 give a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That running is what I'm looking for. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
Wythenshawe are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League players," said the player.
"I think I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.
"We held our own for a good 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.
"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the return match."
'We'll Still Win the Title'
Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Premier Tier championship the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.
"Our team scored one-nil up and had a