Introduce this Sunday League Team With Over 1,800 English Top Division Appearances
How can you improve a outstanding veteran side who have secured consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 victories from 32 games?
Recruit a collection of ex- professionals who have performed at the top level of club football and global soccer as you aim for further silverware.
One Manchester team fields an amateur veterans squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Tier.
Their squad list this season includes nine former top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight games.
The star-studded roster also boasts 222 top division scores and 325 international appearances.
The squad include one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in 117 games for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home game against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The roster for this season also features ex- pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Collectively, the ex- top-flight players have won 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Well-Known Figures and International Players
Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this summer through close mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegal forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.
"A friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The people who come and see are happy and to make someone's day if they see us competing there and to ask us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the bench strength at the club, he made his first game at defender.
"That's a little different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep running.
"That movement is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
Along with the forward's 6 goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.
Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
Paul Barrow, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League games.
"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 English caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.
"We literally have not ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.
"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Win the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets side, who won the Top Division championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We scored 1-0 ahead and had a