True enough, the first two imports signed by the Wanderers (Dino Kresinger and Mateo Poljak) came from Croatia. So what? Does the fact that John van't Schip once signed Rutger Worm make Melbourne Heart a Dutch club? Was Rini Coolen guilty of the same charge because he signed Andy Slory for Adelaide United? Are Perth Glory a Scottish club because Ian Ferguson signed countryman Steve McGarry? What about Sydney FC, when former Czech coach Vitezslav Lavicka signed Karol Kisel not once, but on two occasions? Popovic went to Croatia for his first two foreigners because he knows the league, and the players were available at the right price. His judgment should stand or fall on their performance, not their passport.

Sadly, just as the steam was going out of the rumour mill, the Wanderers turned up to play at Sydney United, and there was trouble. Not the level of trouble portrayed by the usual couple of media outlets, but enough to put some heat back into the discussion. Starting off the back foot, Wanderers boss Lyall Gorman has since been telling everyone that by the time his operation is bedded down, there will be just five employees from about 80 who have a Croatian background. It's a telling fact, but the hard part is to get people to listen.

Why all this matters is because sooner rather than later, the game needs to leave this baggage behind. There was a time when nationalists used clubs like Sydney United, like Footscray, like Preston, like Sydney Olympic, as a forum for their grievances. It is a part of the game's history, and can't, and shouldn't, be whitewashed. But where it counts – on the ground in the old Yugoslavia – things have moved on.

Just recently, I was in Montenegro. Every second car had a Croatian number plate. The owner of my hotel in Kotor, a Serb, crosses the border to have lunch in Dubrovnik at least once a week. You can have adult conversations about culture, religion and politics, and nobody pulls a knife, or a gun. You can even talk about the war if you want to, but everyone would rather leave that at the door. I've also been to Slovenia, and to Croatia, and I've seen this level of maturity evolve as the conflict becomes more distant. And yet in a corner of south-western Sydney, there are still some morons – and I only use that term because this is a family newspaper – who prefer to hold a grudge, and ambush football matches to make their point.

That is manna from heaven for hair-trigger police and flash-happy photographers, as we've seen, once again. True enough, Sydney United should have got rid of their hooligan fringe a long time ago. That apathy has come at an enormous cost. And it is a sad fact that even in the NSW Premier League, games between Sydney United and Serbian-backed Bonnyrigg White Eagles still have to be held behind closed doors. Not that long ago, Mark Rudan, a former Sydney United player, was abused by supporters when he ventured to Bonnyrigg as coach of the visiting team. It wasn't Sydney United, but Rockdale City. Some people just don't want to let go.