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How can you improve a outstanding experienced side that have secured back-to-back championships, including a league-cup double boasting 30 wins from 32 games?

Recruit a raft of ex- professionals that have competed at the elite tier of club football and global football as you aim for additional trophies.

A Greater Manchester side has an non-professional vets squad with nine ex- top-flight footballers in their active roster.

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

Wythenshawe Veterans Over-35s are located in south the city and compete in the Cheshire-based Veterans League Premier Division.

The squad list this season includes 9 ex- top-flight footballers, with a total over 1,800 top-flight appearances.

This elite roster also contains over 220 top division scores and over 320 international caps.

They include Papiss Cisse, who notched thirty-seven scores in over 100 games for his former club after moving to them for £9m from German league club Freiburg in 2012.

Cisse had his first appearance for the team in their last home match versus reigning champions Collegiate Old Boys and netted all six scores in a six-two victory - including a 32-minute first-half triple.

Wythenshawe's roster for this season also includes ex- pros such as English and Liverpool striker Emile Heskey, Hull and Burnley midfielder George Boyd, Toffees striker Oumar Niasse, Wigan Athletic full-back Maynor Figueroa, City pair Stephen Ireland and Nedum Onuoha and top-flight championship victors Joleon Lescott and Danny Drinkwater.

Collectively, the former top-flight players have won fifteen major honors and moved for combined transfer fees of around £123m.

Household Figures and International Stars

Stephen Ireland began playing for the team during preseason this season through good mate and present team teammate Blake Norton, and the former Republic of Ireland player then asked other ex-pros, who all play in a weekly nine-a-side game, to join in.

Ex- Senegal forward Niasse, who netted twelve scores in sixty-five Premier League matches for Everton and even now goes to their home games, also made his debut against the opposition - who are based in the city and wear an Everton warm-up gear as their uniform.

"My mate Stephen Ireland said 'come and play, it's good fun'," said Niasse.

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

"When you still enjoy the game and you feel you can still do it, wherever you can play, what are you going to do?

"The fans who turn up and watch are pleased and to give someone's moment if they see us competing 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 bench strength at the club, Niasse had his debut at defender.

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

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

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

'Surreal Feeling

Along with the forward's six goals on debut, Stephen Ireland has scored eight in 3 games for Wythenshawe, while George Boyd scored five on his first appearance and Lescott, a defender by position, scored a hat-trick in one match up front.

Wythenshawe are leading of the Premier Division with 3 wins from 3 and a GD of +19.

Paul Barrow, thirty-eight, who features on the flank for Collegiate OB, faced ex- Latics defender Maynor Figueroa on Sunday - and had to tell his young boy who Heskey was.

He has played at 2 World Cups for Honduras, in as well as playing in more than 200 Premier League matches.

"The news was spreading like a rumor they had these ex-Premier League players," remarked the player.

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

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

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

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

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

"Now we are eager for the return fixture."

'We'll Still Win the Title'

The manager manages the opposition vets side, who secured the Top Tier title the previous campaign, along with Paul Maguire.

"Our team went one-nil up and had a