Why LA Galaxy moved Rayan Raveloson at the deadline

Nearing the transfer window deadline last week, the LA Galaxy made two notable moves. The first is the previously discussed addition of Riqui Puig from Barcelona. The second being LA selling 25-year old midfielder Rayan Raveloson to Auxerre in Ligue 1 of France for roughly $2m (those are on top of the previous addition of Gaston Brugman in the midfield in early July).

This season, Raveloson has scored three goals while also contributing four assists. He's completed 86.1% of his passes on the season. Raveloson has made 14 key passes on the year, and has also played 49 accurate long balls. He's played 1,784 minutes on the year across 22 appearances (21 starts).

Raveleson has been a very good player for LA this season, and is still just 25 years old, so why did the Galaxy move him? Well, there are several reasons in my opinion.

Three reasons LA elected to move Rayan Raveloson

The main reason is that the addition of Puig (alongside the previous addition of Brugman) made it where LA didn't have as much of a need for Raveloson in the midfield. They now have those two alongside Mark Delgado). Raveloson likely would have been relegated to a reserve role.

While having someone like Raveloson coming off the bench provides a great amount of quality depth, being able to move him also opens up a lot of opportunities for future flexibility. Being able to bring in $2m for a player that was likely about to become a reserve is really good value in my opinion (even if you don't get as much depth).

The second reason is that Raveloson's value is very high right now. LA brought him in a year ago on a free transfer. Now they are able to get $2m after Raveloson's productive season so far. That is a very good piece of business for the club. With Raveloson having as good of a season as he is right now, you could make the argument that the Galaxy feel that this is as high as Raveloson's value will be (whether it actually be at the peak or not). When you get the opportunity to cash in on a $2m profit, it's hard to blame the club for doing so.

The third and final reason for the transfer that I wanted to point out is that LA is also arguably doing right by Raveloson. With him likely relegated to a reserve role, he now gets a chance to try to earn more playing time for Auxerre right around the beginning point of their season (while he is in fully fit and midseason form). France is also a nation that Raveloson has a lot of experience in (he's played in France for his entire pro career outside of his time with the Galaxy).

He came to LA after a stint in Ligue 2 with Troyes (who has since been promoted to Ligue 1). The Galaxy are rewarding his efforts this season with a move back to Europe and a move to a club in the 'Big Five' leagues in Europe. This could be a great opportunity for Raveloson.

At the end of the day, losing Raveloson might be tough to see for some LA fans, but at the end of the day it was probably the right decision. There are a lot of arguments to be made for keeping him, but I believe that these three reasons discussed here show why it was the right move to move Raveloson in my opinion.