Introduce the Weekend League Club Boasting 1,800 English Top Division Matches
What do you enhance a outstanding experienced squad that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a raft of ex- professionals that have played at the elite tier of club football and global football as you target further trophies.
One Greater Manchester team fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Appearances
Wythenshawe Vets Over 35s are based in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.
Their roster this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
The star-studded squad also contains 222 top division goals and 325 global appearances.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The squad for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123 million.
Well-Known Names and International Stars
Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during preseason this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League games for the Toffees and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and play, it's good fun'," commented the striker.
"Then he told me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"If you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love 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 running.
"The movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Feeling
In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Top Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a GD of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against former Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at two World Cups for Honduras, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.
"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I think I was a bit starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's has over 60 England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.
"Our group really have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mother and sibling on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of regular guys.
"Now we can't wait for the second match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition vets team, who won the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"Our team went one-nil up and had a