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How do you improve a stellar experienced team who have claimed consecutive titles, featuring a league-cup double boasting thirty victories from 32 matches?

Recruit a raft of former professionals who have played at the elite tier of club and international football as you aim for further trophies.

A Manchester club has an amateur veterans squad with nine former top-flight footballers in their current roster.

222 Top Division Scores, 325 Global Caps

The team Veterans Over-35s are located in southern the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Vets Division Premier Division.

The roster this campaign includes 9 ex- Premier League players, with a total over 1,800 Premier League matches.

The elite squad also boasts 222 top division goals and over 320 global appearances.

The squad include Papiss Cisse, who netted 37 goals in 117 appearances for Newcastle United after signing for them for £9m from German league side Freiburg in 2012.

He had his debut for the team in their most recent home game against reigning title holders their rivals and scored all six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes former pros such as English and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan defender Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight title winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen significant honors and transferred for total transfer fees of about £123m.

Well-Known Figures and Global Stars

Stephen Ireland started turning out for the team during pre-season this season through good friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then invited other former professionals, who all play in a weekly small-sided match, to join in.

Ex- Senegal striker Oumar Niasse, who netted twelve goals in 65 top-flight matches for the Toffees and still attends their matches at Goodison Park, also had his first appearance versus the opposition - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'join and have a game, it's a laugh'," said the striker.

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from the city and the surprise I had when I noticed them sporting Blue shirts - I say this is strange for me!

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

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

So great is the squad depth at the club, Niasse had his debut at full-back.

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

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

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

'Surreal Scenario

Along with Cisse's 6 scores on debut, Ireland has scored 8 in three games for Wythenshawe, while Boyd hit 5 on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by trade, notched a triple in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are top of the Premier Division with three wins from 3 and a goal difference of +19.

One opponent, thirty-eight, who features on the wing for the opposition, came up against former Latics full-back Figueroa on the weekend - and had to tell his nine-year-old son who Emile Heskey was.

Figueroa has played at two World Cups for his country, in addition to featuring in over 200 Premier League games.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these former top-flight stars," remarked the player.

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

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

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

"Our group really haven't stopped talking about it - I was phoning my mother and sibling on the journey home.

"The opponents were all really nice, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of regular fellas.

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

'We'll Still Win the League'

Andy Kirby coaches the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Division championship last season, along with his co-manager.

"We went one-nil ahead and had a