Luton Town nailed it with West Ham deal that left a lasting impression.
Loyalty in football is perhaps hard to come by nowadays.
Players with huge ambitions to play at the top before their time, as well as the pressures of financial regulations for clubs have perhaps seen the one-club legend status start to be abandoned in the modern game.
However, at Luton Town, one star has built a legacy that nearly covers the entirety of his career, and while he will never be a one-club player, Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu is one in all but name after making the move to Kenilworth Road in November 2013.
The now 30-year-old left West Ham United 11 years ago, originally on loan, dropping down from the Premier League to the National League (then known as the Conference), before making the permanent switch to the Hatters in January 2014.
Nearly a decade later, the midfielder became the first ever player to go from non-league to the Premier League with the same club, winning promotion to the top flight with Luton in the 2022/23 season.
Not many would have foreseen the rise of Mpanzu and Luton
While it would have been hard to judge Mpanzu’s technical ability during the early stages of his career, West Ham decided that his future was to be away from the Boleyn Ground, allowing the then 20-year-old to join the Hertfordshire club permanently during the 2013/14 campaign.
He had an instant impact on the team, helping them to their first promotion on their rise back to the top, scoring twice from holding midfield in the fifth tier of English football.
The next stage of their meteoric rise up the pyramid took longer than what they may have expected, as Luton spent four seasons in League Two, with Mpanzu making over 100 appearances in the division before he helped his side win back-to-back promotions from the lowest division in the EFL up to the Championship between 2017 and 2019.
Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Luton Town vs Colchester United
The Democratic Republic of the Congo international thrived under the management of Nathan Jones, and in an interview in 2022, the midfielder spoke about how much he valued his now former manager.
“He’s been a great manager and hopefully he can have a lot more (games).
“He’s pushing for bigger and better things so I wish him all the best, but currently he’s with us right now and he’s one of the best managers in the league and that’s why he got the Manager of the Year last season.
Nathan Jones
“So he’s put in the work and put the club in a great position.”
Mpanzu completed his legacy in 2023
Not many footballers get to enjoy one promotion in their career, so to have multiple with the same club perhaps defies belief, even for Mpanzu himself.
While getting to the Championship was an excellent achievement, it was clear that Luton were not satisfied, and after surviving in their first season back in the division in 2018/19, they began to climb the table.
Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, Wayne Rooney, Luton Town vs Derby County
They reached the play-offs in the 2021/22 campaign, losing out to Huddersfield Town over two legs, but this only seemed to inspire the Hatters further as they made it to Wembley for the play-off final against Coventry City just a season later, under the guidance of Rob Edwards.
