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What do you improve a stellar veteran team who have claimed consecutive championships, featuring a double triumph boasting thirty wins from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of former professionals who have played at the elite tier of club and international football as you target additional silverware.

A Manchester side boasts an amateur veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their present lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 International Appearances

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Top Division.

Their roster this season features nine former top-flight players, with a collective 1,801 top-flight matches.

This elite roster also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their most recent home-field game against reigning champions their rivals and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour first-half hat-trick.

The squad for this season also includes ex- pros such as England and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight players have secured 15 major trophies and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the side during pre-season this summer through close mate and present Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish midfielder then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in 65 Premier League matches for Everton and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Blue warm-up gear as their strip.

"A friend Stephen told me 'join and have a game, it's good fun'," said the striker.

"After that he informed me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them sporting Blue kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"When you still enjoy the game and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to choose?

"Those people who turn up and watch are happy and to make someone's moment 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 structure of course."

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

"That's a bit unusual but then, I love sprinting and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

"I warn my defender 'I'm not hanging back' and that I'm just going to continue attacking.

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd scored 5 on his first appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a triple in one game up front.

The team are top of the Premier Tier with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Latics defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over two hundred Premier League matches.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had all these former top-flight stars," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd England appearances.

"Our side held our own for a solid twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was tough.

"Our group literally haven't ceased chatting about it - I was calling my mum and sibling on the way home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the game - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager coaches the opposition vets side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, together with Paul Maguire.

"We scored one-nil ahead and had a