Crew SC entered the offseason with three players who had started multiple games at left back over the course of the 2017 season.

Just one of those players, 29-year-old Hector Jimenez, remains on the roster less than four months away from the start of the 2018 season.

On Thursday, the Crew completed a trade sending Waylon Francis, whose option Crew SC declined Dec. 1, to the Seattle Sounders in exchange for $50,000 in general allocation money. Two days earlier, in a bit of a surprise, Los Angeles Football Club selected left back Jukka Raitala with the fourth pick in the expansion draft. LAFC traded Raitala to Montreal later in the day.

Raitala,who started 20 regular-season games in his first season with Crew SC, would have at least competed for the starting left back job during the 2018 season, but the Crew’s goal now is the same one it had before the expansion draft: Bring in a starting-caliber left back.

“I don’t think it changes it much,” Crew coach and sporting director Gregg Berhalter told The Dispatch on Thursday of Raitala’s selection. “We’re gonna miss Jukka. He was a consummate professional and a great guy. It was great having him here last year, but our intentions all along have been to bring in a left back and whether that’s competing with Jukka for game time, whether that’s competing with Hector for game time, that was our plan all along.”

Jimemez appeared in 19 games for Crew SC in 2017, most of those appearances coming at right back. Connor Maloney and Harrison Afful are the only other fullbacks currently on the Crew’s roster, and both primarily are right backs.

“We still feel like we have quality in that position right now,” Berhalter said of left back. “We think we’re gonna add quality in that position and we’re gonna put a group on the field next year that can be competitive.”

Reports out of Argentina last month linked Crew SC to 19-year-old Newell’s Old Boys left back Milton Valenzuela, but a follow-up report earlier this month indicated talks between the Crew and Valenzuela had become “complicated.”

Berhalter said “yes,” asked if the team’s offseason wish list has been further solidified in the last two weeks, but declined to elaborate.

“We’re gonna keep that internal,” Berhalter said, asked about specific positions. “I just told you about left back. All the rest we’re going to be keeping internal.”

Manneh’s future TBD

Midfielder/forward Kekuta Manneh returned from a trial with FC Union Berlin in Germany last week without a contract in place. It is not immediately clear where — and in which country — he will land, with a source telling The Dispatch earlier this week his next destination is “TBD.”

At the time of Manneh’s trial with the 2. Bundesliga club, sources told The Dispatch FC Union Berlin had been tracking Manneh for a while, that the club viewed him as a real prospect and that Manneh was in Germany with the intention of completing a move.

Crew SC announced Dec. 1 it had made Manneh, whose contract was set to expire following this season, an offer. Per the terms of the Crew’s trade with Vancouver to bring Manneh to Columbus in March, the Crew will keep its 2018 first-round SuperDraft pick unless Manneh re-signs with Crew SC.

Manneh made $168,375 in guaranteed compensation last season, according to Players Union salary data.

Asked earlier this month about Manneh’s trial in Germany, Berhalter said he was “supportive” of Manneh exploring his options.

“We knew about it early. I actually called some people about him. We were extremely supportive of that. I’m all for players exploring their options. He’s out of contract. We do want to re-sign him, we think he can make a big impact with us here, but at the end of the day, the player wants to see some of his options and I completely understand that,” he said. “So, we’re supportive of that and we want him, as all our players, to be comfortable and to feel like they’re in a place where they’re gonna develop.”

Stoppage time

Austin city staff released a 34-page report Thursday detailing eight city-owned sites identified as either potential MLS stadium sites, practice sites or both. … Gaston Sauro is the only former Crew SC player available in the 2017 MLS Re-Entry Draft Stage 1 set for Friday afternoon. … MLS held at Board of Governors meeting Thursday to discuss expansion bids from its four finalists: Cincinnati, Detroit, Nashville and Sacramento. The MLS Expansion Committee plans to “have more details shortly,” according to a league release.

aerickson@dispatch.com

@AEricksonCD