IT’S September 2018 and Rangers manager Steven Gerrard has gathered his squad on the Auchenhowie pitches before the start of training.

“Come here Stephen,” he says beckoning namesake Stephen Kelly forward and putting an arm around the youngster’s shoulder.

“Lads this fellow today has signed a multi-million-pound contract. How many years? Three is that all they’ve given you? I’d have given you six. He says he’s going to sing us a little song before the rondos.”

Kelly escapes the task with a one-liner. “That wasn’t in the contract,” he responds before the group disperses to a chorus of laughter. Gerrard joked of a six-year deal but then aged 18, impressing his manager and training regularly with the first-team, a successful long-term Ibrox future seemed more than achievable.

“Praise coming from a name like Gerrard as a midfielder, it means a bit more,” Kelly says reflecting on the summer of 2018, that saw him make the step up having trained with the club since the age of six and working under a modern great.

“Mick Beale and Gary McAllister took a lot of the training but he [Gerrard] was always giving you pointers, ‘did you not see that pass’ or ‘why didn't you move here?’. Because I was out on loan, I never got a day-to-day working relationship with the coaching staff to improve me as a player. But in terms of support, phone calls and text messages, Gerrard was always very good.

“I remember at the very start when he first came in, that was my first taste of the first team. For three or four months at the start of the season, I was pretty much with them every day. Even at that stage, Connor Goldson, Scott Arfield, Jermain Defoe, were all very complimentary of me in training. When I was 18 I felt comfortable at the training level. Even the manager said that to me at the time.

“That’s always what I’d expected of myself having grown up in the academy. I always felt if I got into the position of playing and training with guys at that level, although it would be harder because they’re better, it was what I was good at. Playing one or two touch. A lot of players maybe struggle with that coming from the younger age groups, but that is what I was good at. That’s what I knew.”

Kelly is speaking four years on from that initial professional contract, nearly four years to the day. In the time that has followed, he’s been on three separate loan spells and now, has secured a permanent exit from Ibrox. This September, the 22-year-old completed a move to Livingston having previously spent time on loan with Ayr, Ross County and Salford City.

After Gerrard’s inaugural summer where the midfielder signed his initial contract and impressed in training, the 2019/20 season saw him perform well in the Scottish Championship with Ayr United. Subsequently, he made the move north to Dingwall and the jump up to the Premiership, off the back of a new, extended contract at Rangers that ran through to 2023.

That extension was indicative of the belief that Kelly could make the grade at Ibrox. During his year on loan at County, he thrived under John Hughes, a manager who encouraged his team to be brave in possession. He told the Athletic: “He’s [Kelly] as brave as a lion and has the courage to get on the ball. He’s my type of player: someone who wants the ball and keeps it ticking over. He understands the game.”

Coming back into the first-team squad after Rangers had won their 55th title in the summer of 2021, there was a general expectation that this was Kelly’s time, an opinion the player shared. 

Impressive pre-season outings against Patrick Thistle and Brighton didn’t dampen his chances. A tidy but combative midfielder, capable of dictating play, Kelly’s profile married up nicely with Glen Kamara and Steven Davis’ role at the base of midfield. Given Rangers’ run of performances in their title-winning season, the environment appeared conducive to blooding a promising academy graduate next to an experienced professional at the base of midfield. 

“Stephen’s progressed really well, he’s had a couple of good loans and impressed. I think he warranted that tonight in amongst some senior players, top international footballers and he was very competent,” McAllister said after the Patrick friendly and Gerrard offered similar compliments following the meeting with Brighton.

“Coming back into that summer the message I had was that I’d have a fair opportunity in pre-season and it was up to me,” Kelly says.

“Obviously because I had the length of the contract, going on loan could always have been a possibility if it didn’t work out. After those performances in pre-season, I don’t think many people wouldn’t have expected more opportunities. Especially in the early part of the season.

“I remember John Lundstram, who was new at the time, was very impressed with my pre-season when he first came in. I think the loans that I had stood me in good stead for getting a crack at Rangers. Having good loans in different leagues, you’d be hoping for at least a chance.”

The chance was never forthcoming in competitive football. Despite the promise shown in pre-season, Kelly would hardly see the pitch with cameo appearances against Dunfermline and Alashkert his only game time by the time January rolled around. With Glen Kamara, Ryan Jack, John Lundstram, Steven Davis, Scott Arfield, Joe Aribo, Ianis Hagi and summer signing Juninho Bacuna competing for three spots in the middle, minutes were always going to be difficult. The season’s narrative arc, which dipped from peak confidence in July to Gerrard’s departure in November after a slow start, didn’t help.

“I had 60 games around that summer and felt if an opportunity was going to come it would be after the team had won the league and I’d had two decent loans,” Kelly adds.

“If I remember, I don’t think the form was too great. I don’t know if that made an impact for a young player going in. Personally, I felt it was a natural progression to be given a chance because of how the pre-season had gone to get a couple of opportunities to see how I did. I don’t think many young players will really find out how good they are at Rangers unless you get opportunities within the team alongside the other best 10 players. Again, when you look at my position in midfield, at times you’d have eight or nine midfielders. Only three play. It’s not impossible but when there are that many numbers it does become very difficult.

“I think after the pre-season and a few weeks into the season, you can see the picture. Changing managers probably didn’t help but at the same time, I wasn’t getting many opportunities anyway. I would have been 21 at the time, I was a big boy.

“Looking back now, if I went on loan at the start of last season [2021/22] and had another 30 to 35 games, I reckon that would have been better for me as a player and for my own CV."

Giovanni van Bronckhorst had arrived and altered Gerrard’s style, in January he signed two more midfielders to heighten competition in the form of James Sands and Aaron Ramsey. Kelly spent the second half of last season on loan at Salford City but after three clubs in as many years, he knew that this summer required long-term thinking and that led him to Livingston.

“I knew going on loan to Salford, I probably wasn’t coming back to Rangers,” Kelly says reflecting on that January.

“I knew that was probably going to be a loan to get back playing and then looking ahead to the summer. I wasn’t really expecting to come back into the manager’s plans even though I felt I did well on loan. For me, the picture was pretty clear.

“A lot of the manager’s staff were impressed at how I looked after my loan at Salford and coming back into the first-team fold and felt I’d been impressive. Especially during the pre-season week in Portugal this summer, they’d seen an improvement. Again, it comes to the friendlies and I never really got the opportunity I’d got the season before.

“Livingston has been good so far. The manager and the club demand hard work. Training, the gym, everything has been good and demanding. Hard work plays its part but sometimes, from looking in from the outside, the club maybe don’t get the credit they deserve in terms of some of the players they have and the football they play. Hard work is a massive part but there is more to it.

“I think the manager [David Martindale] knows what he wants on the pitch from his different positions. Whether that be a holding midfielder, box-to-box or No.10. At the same time, he wants you to express yourself especially in attacking areas. That’s where he feels I can bring a difference to the team, going from middle to front.

“When you grow up in the academy system you’re playing against boys from all over Europe and the Scotland squad. But when you see the platform a lot of [other] players have that maybe you’ve not had because you’ve been on loan, it makes you want to have that sort of home. I’m grateful that Livingston have given me that opportunity.”