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How can you improve a stellar veteran team that have secured back-to-back championships, featuring a league-cup double with thirty victories from thirty-two matches?

Recruit a raft of former pro players who have performed at the highest tier of club football and international soccer as you aim for further honors.

One Greater Manchester side has an amateur vets team with 9 ex- top-flight footballers in their present squad.

Two Hundred Twenty-Two Premier League Goals, Three Hundred Twenty-Five International Appearances

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

Their lineup this season boasts nine former top-flight footballers, with a collective 1,801 Premier League games.

The star-studded roster also includes over 220 Premier League scores and 325 international appearances.

They include one forward, who notched 37 scores in 117 games for his former club after signing for them for nine million pounds from German league side Freiburg in January 2012.

He had his debut for Wythenshawe in their last home game versus defending title holders their rivals and netted every one of the six scores in a six-two victory - including a half-hour opening period hat-trick.

Wythenshawe's squad for this campaign also includes former pros such as England and Anfield striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley FC winger George Boyd, Everton forward Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, Manchester City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship winners Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

In total, the former Premier League players have claimed fifteen big trophies and transferred for combined transfer fees of about £123 million.

Well-Known Names and Global Players

Stephen Ireland started playing for the team during preseason this summer through close friend and current team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Irish midfielder then invited additional ex-pros, who all compete in a weekly small-sided game, to participate.

Former Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve goals in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against Collegiate OB - who are based in the city and use an Blue training kit as their strip.

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

"After that he informed me we were playing a side from Liverpool and the surprise I had when I noticed them wearing Everton kits - I thought this is strange for me!

"If you still enjoy the game and you know you can still do it, wherever you can kick a ball, what are you going to do?

"Those spectators who turn up and watch are pleased and to make a day if they watch us competing there and to pose us queries - it's really about the pleasure of us getting a place we can enjoy football, with structure of course."

Such is the bench strength at Wythenshawe, Niasse had his first game at defender.

"It's a little different but then, I enjoy sprinting and just go inside - I'm not defending that much," he said.

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

In addition to the forward's six scores on his first game, Ireland has scored 8 in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd hit five on his debut appearance and Joleon Lescott, a centre-half by position, scored a hat-trick in one match as a striker.

Wythenshawe are top of the Top Division with three victories from 3 and a GD of plus nineteen.

One opponent, 38, who features on the flank for the opposition, faced ex- Latics full-back Figueroa on Sunday - and had to explain his nine-year-old boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 global tournaments for his country, in as well as featuring in over two hundred top-flight matches.

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

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

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

"Our side held our own for a good twenty mins but then we had a man sent off and it was hard.

"Our group literally have not ceased talking about it - I was phoning my mum and brother on the journey home.

"The opponents were all friendly, shaking our hands after the match - it was like playing a bunch of normal guys.

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

'We'll Still Take the Title'

The manager manages the Collegiate veterans team, who won the Premier Tier title last season, together with his co-manager.

"We scored one-nil up and had a