Meet this Sunday League Team With Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
What can you boost a outstanding experienced side that have claimed back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?
Sign a group of former professionals who have performed at the top tier of club football and global football as you target additional trophies.
One Greater Manchester side has an amateur veterans squad with 9 former Premier League footballers in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are located in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.
The lineup this campaign features nine former Premier League players, with a combined over 1,800 elite matches.
This elite squad also includes 222 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.
They include one forward, who scored 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.
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 forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- Premier League players have claimed 15 significant trophies and moved for total transfer sums of about £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Stars
Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this season through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Everton training kit as their strip.
"A mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Everton shirts - I say 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 choose?
"The fans who come and watch are pleased and to make a moment if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he made his debut at full-back.
"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 wins from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd England caps.
"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we can't wait for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team went 1-0 ahead and had a