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How can you improve a excellent veteran squad that have won back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double with thirty wins from thirty-two games?

Bring in a group of former professionals that have played at the highest tier of club and international football as you target additional honors.

One Greater Manchester team has an non-professional veterans team with nine ex- Premier League players in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over 35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire Veterans Division Premier Division.

The roster this season boasts 9 former top-flight footballers, with a collective over 1,800 elite matches.

The star-studded team also boasts over 220 top division scores and 325 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in 117 appearances for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home-field game against defending champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six goals in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this season also features ex- professionals such as England and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City duo Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and Premier League championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Together, the former Premier League players have secured fifteen significant trophies and transferred for combined transfer sums of approximately £123 million.

Well-Known Names and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began turning out for the side in pre-season this summer through close mate and current team player Blake Norton, and the ex- Republic of Ireland player then asked additional ex-pros, who all play in a midweek nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegalese forward Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League games for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in Liverpool and wear an Everton training kit as their uniform.

"A friend Stephen said 'come and have a game, it's a laugh'," commented the striker.

"Then he informed me we were playing a team from the city and the shock I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

"If you still love football and you know you can still play, anywhere you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"The spectators who turn up and see are happy and to give someone's moment if they watch us playing there and to pose us questions - it's more like the pleasure of us having a place we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the bench strength at the club, he had his first game at full-back.

"That's a bit different but then, I love running and just move forward - I'm not staying back that much," he added.

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

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

Dreamlike' Experience

In addition to Cisse's 6 goals on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 appearances for the side, while George Boyd hit 5 on his debut match and Lescott, a defender by trade, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Tier with 3 victories from 3 and a goal difference of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the flank for the opposition, came up against ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has appeared at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had all these former top-flight players," said Barrow.

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

"Even Emile [Heskey] got on and he's got 60-odd English caps.

"We held our own for a good twenty minutes but then we had a player sent off and it was hard.

"We literally haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning 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 can't wait for the return match."

'We'll Still Take the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the Collegiate vets team, who won the Top Tier championship the previous campaign, together with his co-manager.

"We went 1-0 ahead and had a