Meet the Sunday Division Club Featuring Nearly Two Thousand Top-Flight Appearances
How can you improve a outstanding veteran team who have claimed consecutive championships, including a league-cup double with 30 wins from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the highest tier of club and international football as you target further trophies.
One Manchester side boasts an non-professional vets squad with 9 former top-flight players in their active squad.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 Global Appearances
The team Veterans Over 35s are situated in south the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Top Tier.
Their roster this campaign includes nine ex- Premier League players, with a collective over 1,800 elite matches.
The high-profile squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven goals in over 100 games for his former club after joining them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.
The roster for this season also includes ex- professionals such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the former Premier League players have won 15 major honors and moved for combined transfer sums of approximately £123m.
Household Names and Global Players
Ireland began playing for the team in preseason this season through close mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight matches for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against the opposition - who are located in the city and use an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and play, it's enjoyable'," said the striker.
"Then he informed me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"If you still love football and you feel 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 make a moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can play, with organisation of course."
Such is the strength in depth at Wythenshawe, he had his debut at full-back.
"That's a little different but then, I enjoy running and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I tell my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
'Surreal Scenario
Along with the forward's six scores on debut, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one game as a striker.
The team are leading of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.
Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for his country, in addition to featuring in more than 200 top-flight games.
"The news was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a little starstruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got over 60 England caps.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.
"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
We Will Still Win the League'
Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Premier Division title last season, together with Paul Maguire.
"We went one-nil ahead and had a