Introduce the Sunday League Team Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games
How can you improve a excellent experienced team that have claimed back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals who have competed at the top tier of club football and global football as you aim for further silverware.
One Greater Manchester club boasts an amateur vets squad with nine former top-flight players in their current lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are based in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.
The lineup this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 Premier League games.
The elite team also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 global caps.
The squad feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game against reigning title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half triple.
The team for this season also features former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight players have secured 15 big trophies and moved for total transfer sums of approximately £123 million.
Household Names and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland began turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited other former professionals, who all play in a midweek small-sided match, to participate.
Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are located in Liverpool and use an Blue training kit as their strip.
"My friend Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.
"Then he told me we were facing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?
"The fans who turn up and watch are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to ask us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."
So great is the squad depth at the club, he had his first game at full-back.
"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Dreamlike' Experience
In addition to the forward's six goals on debut, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a hat-trick in one game up front.
The team are leading of the Top Tier with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.
He has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to featuring in more than two hundred top-flight games.
"It was spreading like a rumor they had all these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.
"I felt I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.
"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.
"Our group really have not stopped chatting about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the journey home.
"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return fixture."
'We'll Still Take the League'
The manager manages the opposition veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.
"Our team scored 1-0 up and had a