But after being unveiled as Graham Arnold's replacement on Monday, the 51-year-old is set for a rapid baptism as he attempts to turn around Australia's World Cup qualification campaign in a short space of time.
This time last week Popovic was relaxing with his family in Croatia after leaving Melbourne Victory without a job earlier this year.
Fast forward to three weeks from now, he will be attempting to down China in Adelaide on October 10 in his first game in charge.
Five days later, he'll be back in Japan - a country he spent four years of his playing career in - attempting to down the unbeaten side in Group C.
Three points across those two games will be a minimum expectation if the Socceroos want to qualify automatically after a winless start to round three with a loss to Bahrain and a draw away to Indonesia.
But rather than feel daunted by the task that awaits him, Popovic believes quick fixes can be made.
"I watched the games over the weekend, I didn't get a chance to see them live from Croatia (and) the team maybe looked a little bit flat," Popovic said.
"That can happen in games … but there are obviously some areas there that I believe we can improve.
"Maybe we can be a little bit more dynamic, we can move the ball quicker, we can get more players in the box, but these are things that they were doing which brought a lot of success.
"The last two games, there wasn't a lot of evidence of that, and I'm sure we can get that back and do it even better moving forward."
Tony Popovic speaks to the media after being announced as the next Socceroos coach. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)
Popovic will have to name his first squad next week and is expected to have Riley McGree and Adjin Hrustic, both of whom missed the September qualifiers due to injury, at his disposal.
Left-back Jordan Bos is also likely to come into calculations for a place in the squad.
Popovic has said he will consider changes to the backroom team vacated by Arnold in the lead-up to the October window.
"We'll make an assessment on the existing staff and if people come in it is to make the programme better," he said.
"It won't be a change for change's sake. Likewise with the players, if new players come in, it will be not to just give someone an opportunity.
"We have to honour the shirt, and there must be an expectation to play for the Socceroos and any player, regardless of age, young or older, will all be looked at and anyone that deserves a chance will get one."
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