Meet the Weekend League Squad Boasting Nearly Two Thousand Premier League Games

How can you improve a outstanding veteran squad that have secured back-to-back championships, including a double triumph with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a collection of former pro players that have competed at the highest tier of club football and global football as you target additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets team with 9 former Premier League footballers in their present roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Scores, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in southern the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Top Tier.

The roster this season features 9 ex- top-flight players, with a total nearly 1,800 Premier League matches.

This elite squad also contains over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad include one forward, who notched thirty-seven goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after joining them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their last home game against defending title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a 6-2 victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the ex- top-flight footballers have won 15 big trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good mate and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all compete in a midweek nine-a-side match, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who netted 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also made his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"A mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"Then he told me we were playing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I say this is wrong for me!

"When you still enjoy football and you feel you can still play, anywhere you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the strength in depth at the club, he made his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love running and just move inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

"I tell my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to keep attacking.

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's good fun."

Dreamlike' Experience

In addition to Cisse's six scores on debut, Ireland has scored eight in three appearances for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

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

"It was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," said the player.

"I felt I was a bit awestruck facing Figueroa to be honest.

"Even Heskey came on and he's got 60-odd English appearances.

"We held our own for a good 20 minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was tough.

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

"They were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we can't wait for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Premier Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went 1-0 up and had a