Yesterday Popovic dropped a bombshell when he announced that he would be leaving Western Sydney to pursue a coaching opportunity with Turkish Süper Lig club Karabükspor.

Popovic was the club’s inaugural A-League coach, and in his five seasons at the club led the Wanderers to the Premiership in their debut season, three Grand Finals and the 2014 Asian Champions League trophy.

Aspro signed a professional contract with Western Sydney when he was 17 and a year later made his first team Wanderers debut in 2015, and the Olyroos defender praised the way Popovic developed young players.

“Players like Jaushua Sotirio, Lachlan Scott, Kearyn Baccus and the youth players come through because the training environment is so good and his coaching is so good,” he said speaking exclusively to FourFourTwo.

“Youth players get a chance because they’re always improving in an intense environment.

“In terms of his coaching to us defenders he does have an immense knowledge of defending and how to defend and be a central defender.

“Every day we trained at the highest intensity and that was beneficial for my development and all the young boys at the club also benefited from that.

“If you ask a lot of players who came to the Wanderers they found that it was a difficult transition at the start in terms of the intensity of the training compared to their previous clubs, and it’s no different from when I first came here."

Popovic featured for Australia at the 2006 World Cup and played for Crystal Palace for a season in the English Premier League (EPL), and Aspro believes that high-level playing experience was noticeable in his coaching.

“It’s come though playing in the EPL, playing for the Socceroos and his whole career and learning from different coaches as well," he said.

“So, if we were ever doing something wrong or it wasn't  being done right, he’d pull us aside and tell us how it’s done. It’s all those little details as well, no stone gets unturned.”

Speaking to FourFourTwo before Popovic departed, Wanderers Spanish marquee Oriol Riera could sense the 44-year-old would be departing for greater things but perhaps later rather than sooner.

“He’s a very good coach,” he said.  “We will see him in a few years coaching in La Liga or in the English Premier League or in one of the best leagues I think so.”