Would Scotland Be As Good As Iceland With A Similar Population?

[Super_Scotlandfan]

Iceland's small population and impressive recent form makes me wonder if we could have produced a similar performance with the same population. Saw a few on here commenting if we should be looking at their system, asking how this small population has produced such a successful team.

Iceland has a population of 325,000.

For ease of comparison I've looked at the players from similarly populated cities; Glasgow (596,000) Edinburgh (487,000) and Aberdeen (220,000).

Glasgow's team: (includes McGeady and McCarthy cos they're Glaswegian...)

Marshall

Hutton

Greer

Mulgrew

Robertson

Anya

Dorrans

McCarthy

McGeady

McCormack

Snodgrass

Edinburgh's team: (missing a few...don't know enough Edinburgh born players)

Gordon

Wallace

Berra

?

Whittaker

?

Fletcher

Murray Davidson

Stefan Scougall

?

Griffiths

Aberdeen's team; (Maloney qualifies as he moved to cults when he was a toddler)

Esson

Ryan Jack

Anderson

Souttar

Greame Shinnie

Ryan Fraser

Paul Coutts

Ian Vigurs

Andy Shinnie

Gauld

Maloney

I'd say, on the basis of this, if we had a population around 400k we could produce a team just as good as Iceland's it's just that they've had a longer time with a quality coach and have a talisman like gylfi Sigurdsson.

Agree on the teams?

[Hope]

Surprisingly low amount of internationals from Edinburgh, and i'm sure Murray Davidson's from the borders anyway? that Glasgow team would be a decent side though

[hannibal smith]

Ian black, danny wilson and Kenny miller from Edinburgh and er Garry o'connor

As well as strachan for the manager

[Super_Scotlandfan]

Yeah Ian Black and Kenny Miller are good shouts...nowhere near the strength of the Glasgow team though.

Think Danny Wilson was born and raised Livingston.