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How can you improve a outstanding veteran side that have won back-to-back titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have competed at the highest level of club and international football as you aim for further trophies.

One Greater Manchester side fields an non-professional vets team with nine former Premier League footballers in their present squad.

222 Top Division Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Caps

The team Veterans Over-35s are situated in southern the city and play in the Cheshire Veterans League Premier Division.

Their squad list this season boasts nine ex- top-flight footballers, with a combined 1,801 elite games.

This star-studded team also boasts 222 Premier League scores and 325 global caps.

They include one forward, who scored thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for £9m from Bundesliga side SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse made his debut for the team in their most recent home match versus defending champions their rivals and scored all six goals in a 6-2 victory - featuring a 32-minute opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's team for this campaign also includes ex- pros such as English and Liverpool forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the ex- Premier League footballers have claimed 15 big honors and moved for combined transfer sums of about £123m.

Household Names and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during pre-season this season through close mate and current Wythenshawe teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all play in a midweek small-sided game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League games for the Toffees and still attends their home games, also made his debut versus Collegiate OB - who are located in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

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

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

"When you still enjoy football and you know you can still play, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"Those fans 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 more like the joy of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

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

"That's a little unusual but then, I love sprinting and just go forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

'Surreal Experience

In addition to the forward's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has netted 8 in three appearances for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first match and Lescott, a centre-half by position, notched a triple in one match up front.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 victories from three and a GD of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced former Latics full-back Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his nine-year-old boy who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in addition to playing in over two hundred top-flight matches.

"It was going round like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked Barrow.

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

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

"We held our own for a solid twenty minutes but then we had a player dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group really have not ceased talking about it - I was calling my mother and brother on the way home.

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

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

We Will Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby manages the opposition veterans team, who secured the Top Tier title last season, together with Paul Maguire.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a