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How do you improve a stellar veteran squad who have won consecutive championships, featuring a league-cup double boasting 30 victories from 32 games?

Sign a group of ex- professionals that have competed at the top tier of club football and global soccer as you target additional silverware.

A Greater Manchester team fields an amateur veterans team with 9 former Premier League players in their current roster.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Top Division Goals, 325 Global Caps

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are based in south the city and play in the Cheshire-based Veterans Division Top Tier.

The roster this season includes nine former Premier League footballers, with a combined nearly 1,800 top-flight appearances.

The high-profile roster also contains 222 Premier League goals and 325 international caps.

They feature Papiss Cisse, who netted thirty-seven goals in over 100 appearances for Newcastle United after moving to them for £9m from German league club SC Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their most recent home match versus defending title holders their rivals and scored every one of the six goals in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute opening period triple.

The roster for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield forward Emile Heskey, Hull City and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight footballers have secured 15 significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Names and International Stars

Ireland began turning out for the side during preseason this season through close friend and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the ex- Irish player then invited other ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly nine-a-side game, to participate.

Former Senegalese forward Niasse, who scored 12 goals in 65 top-flight games for the Toffees and still goes to their matches at Goodison Park, also had his debut versus the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their strip.

"My mate Stephen said 'join and play, it's a laugh'," commented Niasse.

"After that he told me we were facing a team from Liverpool and the shock I had when I saw them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is wrong for me!

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

"Those fans who come and see are happy and to give a moment if they see us playing there and to ask us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us having somewhere we can enjoy football, with organisation of course."

Such is the squad depth at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his debut at defender.

"It's a little unusual but then, I enjoy running and just move forward - I'm not defending that much," he added.

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

"That running is what I'm seeking. It's enjoyable."

Unreal Experience

Along with the forward's six scores on his first game, Stephen Ireland has netted eight in 3 games for the side, while Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, notched a triple in one game as a striker.

The team are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, 38, who plays on the wing for Collegiate OB, came up against former Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his young boy who Emile Heskey was.

He has appeared at two World Cups for his country, in addition to playing in over 200 top-flight matches.

"The news was spreading like wildfire they had these former top-flight stars," said the player.

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

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

"We competed well for a good twenty mins but then we had a man dismissed and it was tough.

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the way home.

"They were all friendly, shaking our hands after the game - it was like facing a bunch of normal fellas.

"Now we are eager for the second fixture."

We Will Still Win the League'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans side, who won the Top Division title the previous campaign, along with his co-manager.

"Our team scored one-nil up and had a