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What can you improve a stellar veteran side that have won back-to-back championships, featuring a double triumph with thirty wins from thirty-two matches?

Sign a group of ex- professionals who have performed at the highest level of club and international soccer as you target more silverware.

A Greater Manchester club fields an non-professional vets squad with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their current roster.

222 Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five Global Appearances

Wythenshawe Vets Over-35s are situated in south the city and play in the Cheshire Vets League Premier Division.

Their roster this season boasts 9 former Premier League footballers, with a total 1,801 elite games.

This star-studded squad also boasts 222 Premier League goals and 325 global caps.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who scored 37 goals in over 100 appearances for his former club after joining them for £9m from German league side SC Freiburg in 2012.

He made his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home-field match versus defending title holders Collegiate Old Boys and netted every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

The team for this campaign also features former pros such as England and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic defender Maynor Figueroa, City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for combined transfer fees of around £123 million.

Household Figures and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this summer through good friend and present Wythenshawe player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland midfielder then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Oumar Niasse, who scored 12 scores in sixty-five top-flight games for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My friend Stephen Ireland told me 'join and have a game, it's enjoyable'," commented Niasse.

"Then he informed me we were facing a side from Liverpool and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Everton shirts - I say this is wrong for me!

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

"The people who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's day if they watch us competing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can play, with structure of course."

So great is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, he made his first game at defender.

"It's a bit different but then, I enjoy running and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

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

Unreal Feeling

In addition to Cisse's 6 scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted 8 in three games for the side, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by trade, scored a hat-trick in one game up front.

The team are leading of the Top Tier with three victories from three and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

Paul Barrow, 38, who plays on the wing for the opposition, faced former Wigan defender Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

Figueroa has appeared at 2 global tournaments for Honduras, in addition to playing in over 200 Premier League games.

"It was going round like wildfire they had these ex-Premier League stars," said the player.

"I think I was a little starstruck playing against Figueroa to be honest.

"Also Heskey got on and he's got over 60 England caps.

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

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

"The opponents were all dead sound, shaking our hands after the match - it was like facing a group of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

The manager coaches the Collegiate vets team, who secured the Top Tier championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a