SCOTLAND internationalist Chris Cadden is adamant he is not to blame for the compensation wrangle between his former club Motherwell and Columbus Crew.
The Steelmen are demanding around £200,000 for the 23-year-old, who joined the Major League Soccer outfit last summer before being immediately loaned out to Oxford United for the first half of this season.
Cadden’s stint at the Kassam Stadium has now expired an he is on his way to Ohio – but the cash spat is rumbling on and now appears destined to be settled by a FIFA tribunal.
The Fir Park academy graduate admits the situation is ‘not ideal’ following the successful 13 years he spent in Lanarkshire, but he reckons attempting to apportion blame is unhelpful.
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Cadden said: “I know Motherwell haven’t been happy but I can only thank them for the support they have given me. It’s nobody’s fault. It’s not ideal or the way I wanted it to happen [but] there’s nothing I can do about it.
“It was an opportunity I wanted to take and someone told me about the loophole – if you want to call it that – and Columbus said ‘right, okay’.
“I’m not going to turn that down, it’s not my fault.”
With pre-season about to get underway ahead of the start of the MLS season next month, Cadden added: “I’m a bit nervous about leaving my family and friends. At Oxford, I had to get used to living away from home for the first time and making sure I could actually do it; learning to cook and do washing.
“[Leaving Motherwell] was probably one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I just felt I needed a different challenge.”
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