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How can you improve a stellar veteran squad that have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from 32 games?

Recruit a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the elite tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for additional honors.

One Manchester club fields an non-professional vets team with 9 ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.

222 Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

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

Their roster this season boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The high-profile roster also includes over 220 top division goals and over 320 international caps.

The squad feature Papiss Cisse, who notched 37 goals in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in January 2012.

He made his first appearance for Wythenshawe in their last home-field game versus defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - featuring a 32-minute first-half triple.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the ex- top-flight players have won fifteen big trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of approximately £123 million.

Household Figures and International Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the side during pre-season this season through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then asked additional former professionals, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to participate.

Ex- Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in 65 Premier League games for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance against the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and use an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were playing a team from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I saw them wearing Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you know 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 questions - it's more like the joy of us getting a place we can play, with organisation of course."

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

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy sprinting and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he said.

"I warn my centre-back 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue running.

"The running is what I'm looking for. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has netted 8 in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Top Division with three wins from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against ex- Wigan full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Heskey was.

He has played at two global tournaments for his country, in as well as playing in more than two hundred Premier League matches.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

"I felt I was a little awestruck playing against him to be honest.

"Also Emile [Heskey] came on and he's got over 60 England caps.

"We competed well for a solid 20 minutes but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

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

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a group of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition veterans side, who won the Premier Division title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil ahead and had a