🔗 Share this article

How do you improve a outstanding experienced squad who have claimed consecutive titles, including a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former professionals that have played at the top level of club football and global football as you pursue further silverware.

One Manchester team boasts an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their present lineup.

222 Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

The team Vets Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Premier Division.

The lineup this campaign features 9 former Premier League players, with a combined 1,801 elite matches.

This elite team also includes 222 Premier League scores and over 320 global caps.

They feature one forward, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their most recent home match against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 win - including a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

The roster for this season also features former professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- Premier League footballers have secured fifteen significant trophies and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123 million.

Famous Names and Global Stars

Ireland started turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through good mate and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for the Toffees and even now attends their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say 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 do?

"Those fans who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he had his debut at full-back.

"It's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - 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.

"That movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."

'Surreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Ireland has netted eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd scored 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a triple in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League games.

"It was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," said Barrow.

"I think I was a bit starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's got over 60 England appearances.

"We held our own for a solid 20 mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was hard.

"We literally haven't ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular guys.

"Now we can't wait for the second match."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate veterans side, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil up and had a