TONY POPOVIC

It’s not always clubs and football associations delivering the hammer blow though. Popa’s decision to walk out on Western Sydney Wanderers on the eve of the new season in 2017 was a dagger to the hearts of fans and the club he helped found.

After taking the A-League new boys to the Premiership and being crowned Champions of Asia, Popovic regrouped in the 2017 off-season with a bag of new signings for the new season.

Despite all the success he’d enjoyed with the Wanderers since taking charge in 2012, every approach from overseas clubs had been rebuffed, even including a possible return to the UK and Crystal Palace.

And then troubled Turkish side Karabükspor came knocking…and for reasons still only really known to Popa, he answered. Just a week out from the start of the new season, Popa took his WSW coaching staff and jumped on a plane to Turkey, leaving his old club in the lurch.

Fairly quickly though, it all started to go wrong in Turkey with his new club’s fractured ownership and unrealistic expectations. After nine games in the Super Lig, he was sacked. The club have since been relegated every season and now play in the Turkish third tier.

Popa eventually returned to the A-League last season and won the Premiership at his first attempt with Perth Glory, narrowly missing out on the double in a Grand Final penalty shoot out against Sydney FC. WSW meanwhile are still looking to find their old winning ways from Popa’s days.

ALEN STAJCIC

The drama is not just confined to men’s football. Alen Stajcic’s sudden sacking as Matildas’ coach at the start of this year was arguably one of the most controversial of all.

In mid-December Stajcic was weighing up training bases for the Matildas at the France 2019 World Cup. He appeared alongside CEO David Gallop and Socceroos coach Graham Arnold at the launch of the new FFA logo and then flew out to Paris for the World Cup draw.

Behind the scenes though, the wheels were in motion to sack him days later.

Just after New Year he got a call to meet with Gallop and the FFA’s lawyer to discuss the findings of player surveys. Stajcic had already set up a workshop later in the month to discuss the findings with players.

By the time the meeting with Gallop ended, Stajcic was effectively sacked. He only found out the following day – but the press had already been tipped off he was out.

An ever-changing and vague FFA narrative on the reasons for the sacking ensured the story stayed in the headlines, fuelled also by comments made on social media by the newly-elected deputy FFA chair Heather Reid, for which she later issued a public apology and stood down from her post on health grounds.

On the eve of the women’s World Cup kicking off, the FFA also apologised to Stajcic, now Central Coast Mariners coach, and paid him a lump sum in compensation. Tony Popovic’s former sidekick at Western Sydney Wanderers, Ante Milicic, took Stajcic’s spot on the Matildas bench in France but the team once touted as potential world champions exited at the round of 16.