Introduce the Weekend Division Squad Boasting 1,800 Top-Flight Matches
How can you improve a stellar experienced side who have secured consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?
Sign a collection of former pro players that have performed at the elite level of club and global soccer as you target additional honors.
One Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with 9 former top-flight footballers in their current lineup.
Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Scores, 325 International Appearances
The team Vets Over-35s are based in southern Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
Their squad list this campaign features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total 1,801 top-flight appearances.
This star-studded roster also contains 222 top division scores and 325 global appearances.
They feature one forward, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for nine million pounds from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.
He had his debut for the team in their last home-field game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two win - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The team for this season also includes former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.
Together, the ex- top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek small-sided match, to join in.
Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also had his first appearance against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue warm-up gear as their uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.
"After that he informed me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Everton kits - I say this is strange for me!
"When you still love football and you feel you can still do it, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?
"Those people who come and watch are pleased and to make someone's day if they see us playing there and to pose us queries - it's more like the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"That's a bit different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not staying' and that I'm just going to continue running.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's enjoyable."
Unreal Feeling
Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored five on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.
The team are leading of the Top Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.
One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.
Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight games.
"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.
"Our side competed well for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.
"We really haven't ceased chatting about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the return match."
We Will Still Take the League'
The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.
"We scored one-nil ahead and had a