Discover the Weekend Division Club Featuring 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
What do you boost a stellar experienced squad that have secured consecutive championships, including a double triumph boasting thirty victories from 32 games?
Sign a group of ex- pro players who have played at the top level of club and global soccer as you pursue further silverware.
One Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 former Premier League players in their active roster.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in south Manchester and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.
Their squad list this season boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 elite matches.
The high-profile squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.
The squad include one forward, who notched 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a 6-2 win - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The team for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have won fifteen big honors and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123m.
Famous Names and International Stars
Ireland started turning out for the team in pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked other former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.
"My mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"Then he told me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and see are happy and to make someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the squad depth at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."
'Surreal Experience
In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd scored 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.
He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a