Stevie didn’t get carried away in the dressing room afterwards. He had just made his debut for Liverpool, the club he’d supported since a boy, but he wasn’t jumping up and down and getting excited. Instead he was quiet and normal. But that was typical of Stevie, he was always down to earth. Very humble. Very professional.

That is what stood out about him from the very first moment he started training with the first-team. It was obvious he had a great talent, but at 18 you don’t know for sure if a player can handle being at that level. But he got stuck in fearlessly, never held back. When you come in at that age and do that with established players, well, it shows you have guts and a real desire to claim the ball.

Liverpool were not having the best of seasons when Stevie joined the first team. We were not performing very well on the pitch and there was a change of manager, so the environment was not so good. But despite that the atmosphere in the dressing room was always good and as a new player you were always welcomed in. I had that experience after I arrived from Rosenborg in the summer and Stevie definitely did, too. Being a local boy, he was made to feel particularly welcome and secure, especially by the established local players in the squad, such as Robbie Fowler and Steve McManaman. They looked after him and made sure he had a good chance to just concentrate on his football.

I don’t remember saying anything to Stevie when I came off for him in the Blackburn game. It’s never nice being taken off but given we were comfortably leading and there was not long left on the clock, I didn’t mind, especially as me going off allowed a local talent to make his debut for the club. It was obvious the manager, Gérard Houllier, wanted to give Stevie a few minutes to taste the atmosphere at Anfield and this was the perfect opportunity given we were 2-0 up and there was no pressure on him to score a goal or stop one going in. He could just enjoy the experience.

Since that day Stevie has developed into the complete player. He has strength, power and in the first half of his career he was also really, really quick. But, as mentioned, it is his competitiveness that lives with me – he did everything to win a tackle and never let the opposition rest. He was a leader right from the start.

Raheem Sterling should look at Stevie as a role model. You cannot overstate the importance of patience as a young player in order to establish yourself, and that is something Stevie definitely had. He worked and worked to become a top professional in an environment that allowed him to do so and eventually became one of the best players in the world. The same can happen for Raheem but he doesn’t seem to have that same patience and willingness to keep learning. That’s a real shame.

It is pleasant to be remembered as the man who came off so Steven Gerrard could make his Liverpool debut but I find the fuss around that a bit strange as the moment doesn’t have any symbolic value – after all, Stevie didn’t replace me long-term; I was a right-back and although he played there briefly, he was quickly established in midfield.

Sadly, I didn’t get the chance to watch his last game at Anfield. I am a board member at Rosenborg now and on Saturday we had a big league game. It was in front of a sell-out crowd and we beat Sandefjord 5-1. But I followed the scores on my phone and although it was a shame Liverpool couldn’t win for Stevie I’m glad he at least got a big send-off. That’s the least he deserved for having been a great Liverpool player for such a long time.