Introduce the Weekend Division Team With Over 1,800 Top-Flight Games
How can you boost a outstanding veteran team who have secured consecutive championships, including a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 matches?
Bring in a raft of former professionals who have competed at the highest level of club and global football as you target more honors.
One Manchester club fields an non-professional veterans squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active roster.
222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances
The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Tier.
The lineup this campaign boasts nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined 1,801 top-flight matches.
The high-profile team also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who scored 37 scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game versus reigning champions their rivals and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.
The roster for this campaign also features former professionals such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have claimed 15 major honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and International Players
Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 goals in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A mate Stephen told me 'come and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue shirts - I thought this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he had his first game at defender.
"That's a bit unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with the forward's 6 scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a triple in one match up front.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with 3 wins from three and a GD of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than 200 Premier League games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.
"Our group literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and brother on the way home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a