Rangers staff impressed by Stephen Kelly loan before Livingston move
Rangers decided to sell midfield player Stephen Kelly in the summer after just three games for the club which left him frustrated.
The 22-year-old had worked very hard out on loan at Salford City at the end of last season and had impressed Giovanni van Bronckhorst’s staff but the Dutchman never gave him a chance in pre-season.
He left Ibrox this summer to join fellow Premiership side Livingston where he has three appearances for the club with one goal and one assist to his name.
“I knew going on loan to Salford, I probably wasn’t coming back to Rangers,” Kelly said to Rangers Review.“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.”
Untapped
Having not quite hit the ground running at the Tony Macaroni Arena so far this season, maybe Rangers have got away with letting Kelly go but they had no idea when they sold him.
Other than two League Cup games and one European match, he was not given any chances to show what he can do in a top-class Light Blues side and it could have been sensational.
There is probably plenty of untapped potential in the 22-year-old and he won’t be the only one to be axed from Auchenhowie who has a big future.
It is a tricky situation for the Gers to be in because they can’t just use the club’s youth setup when they are challenging Celtic for domestic honours and in European competitions too.
No club’s youth system is good enough to sustain that level of performance but perhaps a better balance needs to be struck to ensure most get at least one opportunity to shine.
In other Rangers news, Borna Barisic has been using his experience to guide the next generation of Gers talent including this epic starlet.