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How do you improve a stellar veteran side that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Recruit a collection of former pro players who have performed at the elite level of club and global soccer as you aim for additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- Premier League footballers in their current lineup.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Caps

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

The squad list this campaign includes 9 former Premier League players, with a total 1,801 Premier League matches.

This elite squad also includes over 220 top division scores and 325 international appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from Bundesliga side Freiburg in 2012.

He made his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match against reigning title holders Collegiate Old Boys and scored all six scores in a six-two win - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's team for this season also includes former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former top-flight players have claimed 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Figures and Global Stars

Ireland started playing for the team in preseason this summer through good friend and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegalese striker Niasse, who scored twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Blue training kit as their strip.

"A mate Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," said Niasse.

"Then he told me we were facing a side from the city and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton shirts - I thought this is strange for me!

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

"The people who turn up and see are pleased and to give someone's moment if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his debut at defender.

"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just go forward - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

Dreamlike' Scenario

In addition to the forward's six goals on his first game, Ireland has scored eight in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three victories from three and a goal difference of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced ex- Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young son who Emile Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for his country, in as well as featuring in more than two hundred Premier League games.

"The news was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League stars," remarked Barrow.

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

"Also Heskey came on and he's has 60-odd England appearances.

"We competed well for a solid 20 mins but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"We literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and sibling on the journey home.

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

"Now we are eager for the return match."

We Will Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets side, who secured the Top Division title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil up and had a