Meet the Weekend Division Squad With Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Matches
What can you boost a excellent veteran team that have won consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from thirty-two matches?
Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have performed at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you target more trophies.
A Manchester club fields an amateur vets team with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their active lineup.
222 Top Division Goals, 325 International Caps
The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in south Manchester and play in the Cheshire-based Vets League Premier Division.
Their roster this campaign includes nine former top-flight footballers, with a total nearly 1,800 top-flight matches.
The elite squad also includes 222 top division scores and over 320 international caps.
The squad include one forward, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.
He made his debut for the team in their last home game against reigning title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half hat-trick.
The squad for this campaign also features ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester 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 major trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.
Famous Figures and Global Stars
Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this summer through good mate and current Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.
Former Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who scored twelve scores in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still 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 uniform.
"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.
"After that he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the surprise I had when I saw them sporting Blue shirts - I thought this is wrong for me!
"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to choose?
"The spectators who come and see are pleased and to make a day if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's more like the joy of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."
So great is the strength in depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.
"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move inside - I'm not staying back that much," he said.
"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.
"The movement is what I'm after. It's good fun."
Dreamlike' Scenario
In addition to Cisse's six scores on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one game as a striker.
The team are top of the Premier Tier with three victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.
Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young son who Heskey was.
He has played at two global tournaments for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League games.
"It was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.
"I think I was a bit awestruck facing him to be honest.
"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got 60-odd English caps.
"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was hard.
"We literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and brother on the journey home.
"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a group of normal guys.
"Now we are eager for the second fixture."
We Will Still Take the Title'
The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.
"We went one-nil up and had a