Hatters legend insists joining Luton Town was the 'best decision' of his career

Former Luton midfielder Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu has revealed that agreeing to sign for Luton, despite initially being wary to do so, has been without doubt the best decision of his career.

Back in December 2013 and then just 20 years of age, Mpanzu, who had been at Boreham Wood as a youngster, was on the books of West Ham United, having just made his Hammers debut in a Capital One Cup 2-0 success at Burnley. He then headed to Kenilworth Road as part of a trio of loan additions made by John Still that saw both Joe Davis and Alfie Mawson also sign.

A month later, Mawson and Davis had gone back to Brentford and Port Vale respectively, but Mpanzu opted to make the switch a permanent one, even though he freely admits to having some doubts about leaving the confines of Upton Park to put pen to paper. In an extensive interview with the club’s website, asked for the best moment of his Town career, he said: “Signing for Luton, that's a major one, because me not signing, this would never have happened.

"Making the choice to sign, because ultimately it’s down to me. Your agent, your mum and your dad can say ‘go do this, go do that,’ but when it comes down to it, it’s me that’s doing it and it's me that’s got to make the choice, so I think signing for Luton is a big one, a major one. I’ll be honest, I didn’t want to come here. I was like, this is non-league.

"I saw the pitch and the training facility and thought this is crazy, but listen, sometimes in life you’ve got to make a decision. I went to Ely Way and saw the training ground and my first game, Staines away, playing centre back, it was different, but now I think it was probably the best decision I made in my career. I was like oh, there's dogs running on the pitch (at Ely Way).

"Sometimes at academy football it’s a little bit of a bubble, it’s not really reality and you come to a place where there’s Portakabins, everyone’s eating in one room and the training ground is fenced off by an orange gate, so it’s a reality check but it’s people’s livelihoods. You’ve got to come and manage yourself, put yourself about and make sure when you come in every day as this is men’s football, make sure that you do your job and I think I managed to do that.”

What made the move that bit better was that he joined the club when they were on an upward curve as under John Still they quickly ended five years in the wilderness by winning the Conference title, Mpanzu starting 14 of the final 18 matches, scoring twice, including a memorable screamer in the late 2-1 victory at Dartford. The midfielder admitted it was a good job they had done or his lengthy affinity with the Hatters might not have panned out the way he did, continuing: “John Still, what a man, he knows how to get teams promoted.

"He was critical in bringing me here and making me stay so he's played a big part in my Luton career. He was the first manager that brought me to a club where I could play men’s football all the time. It was a good feeling, but I can’t lie, if we hadn’t got promoted that season, it would have been tough as only one went up. It’s a tough league to get out of and people can get stuck. But playing four, five months here and getting straight up, relief.

"My mum, dad and agent, we made the right decision and you become a league player. Winning helps and I came into a winning side. We just went on a crazy run with that team, playing 4-4-2, straight football and it was a good squad we had. We got promoted and winning the Conference was the first trophy that I won as a player and to win it in my first six months at Luton, what a feeling it was.”

From there, Town had a few unsuccessful seasons in League Two, before Nathan Jones took over and led to Town figuring in the play-off battle during the 2016-17 campaign that saw Mpanzu experience a moment he felt was up there as one of the hardest he has ever had to stomach, a play-off loss to Blackpool.

Having been beaten 3-2 at Bloomfield Road due to a hat-trick from his former team-mate Mark Cullen, Luton were then 3-1 up at Kenilworth Road, only for on-loan keeper Stuart Moore to have a nightmare, needlessly coming off his line for Armand Gnanduillet to head home and then conceding an own goal in the final seconds as the Tangerines went to Wembley. The midfielder continued: “That’s one of the toughest days in my Luton career when you score five goals and you don’t go through.

"The changing rooms are close so we’re silent and they’re pumping the music in and it was very tough to take but Luton's always had bouncebackability and the following season we finished second after Accy (Accrington Stanley) so we knew we had a good enough team to get promoted and next season we proved that. You want that feeling, everyone wants that feeling of celebration and teamwork and how you’re a great group together, to hear that it's mad and it's tough, but we came back next season and we proved that we were good enough to get promoted.”

After that though, Town went back to back, winning the League One title and led to Mpanzu playing with what he felt was one of the best teams he had ever been part of, as they set a club record unbeaten run along the way to a second successive promotion, the midfielder himself starting all 46 league games.

He said: “League One season was peak, that’s one of the seasons I thought nobody could beat us. Twenty nine games unbeaten and we thought teams can’t beat us. We played the diamond formation where it was just fluid and we just smoked teams. I felt sorry for certain teams as we were just putting fours and fives past teams and teams couldn’t touch us.

"There’s seasons you feel indestructible, obviously we did lose to some people on the way, but we were on the job every single game. We knew how to play, we knew the full backs were going to get on, we knew Jack Stacey and James Justin were going to go and it was just a real good season. Nathan Jones gives you belief and we knew how to play.

"We had so many ballers in midfield, we had me, we had (Andrew) Shinnie, we had Elliot Lee, so many players rotating, Luke Berry, it was easy for us and teams felt that, and when you came here (Kenilworth Road), it wasn’t looking good for anyone. We actually dispatched teams and it was mad. We finished as champions and I played every single game, and to be part of a team when you play every game and the manager believes in you, there's no better feeling than that.

"It was probably one of the best groups considering how we played and what we did. Everyone just had an understanding. It comes from the top and everyone bought into it. It was easy to play in that team as everyone knew what they were doing, you’ve got that mad man driving you on and for the best part of six, seven months, we thought no-one’s beating us. We just knew promotion was going to happen and we did it.”

From there, Town had a battle to remain in the Championship during their first season as they looked dead and buried under Graeme Jones, before Covid hit and after Nathan Jones returned for his second spell, Luton achieved the Great Escape as the Hatters eventually stayed up thanks to a final day 3-2 victory over Blackburn Rovers.

Mpanzu, who made another 40 appearances that term, said: “Graeme Jones came in, it was tough, it didn’t really work out. Going back to the Champ is tough, everyone wrote us off, we just had to stabilise the team and I think when he (Nathan Jones) came back we did that. We survived on the last day and from then on we continued to rise, we knew we would continue to rise.”

Having then cemented their place in their second season at the level, Luton went on to reach the play-offs in their third crack at it, only to lose to Huddersfield Town 2-1 on aggregate. Was that even tougher for Mpanzu, who himself was injured for the run-in, to take than the Tangerines loss? You bet it was, as he said: "That season, does it hurt more than Blackpool, yes, a lot of injuries, so many injuries.

"I’m at home and I’m looking at one game and I’ve seen the list of injuries and we’ve got like six, seven players out and then I think Eli (Elijah Adebayo) gets injured in that game as well. We’re just putting teams together and it was tough to take that season, me being injured as well. When you can’t contribute and your team is losing, sometimes you don't even want to watch football, you just want to let it go by.

"It was tough, words can’t explain the feeling unless you’re there and you experience it, but everyone knew we’ve fallen at this hurdle before and we’ve come back. We always knew the next season if we started off well and kept a cohesive group together and the spirit was there, we just knew something special was going to happen and low and behold, we got promoted.”

They sure did, as despite Jones leaving for Stoke City early on, Rob Edwards came in and led the Hatters to a third place finish and play-off final glory at Wembley, beating Coventry City on penalties. Mpanzu always had faith it would be the case though, saying: “He came and he did a wonderful job and I think everyone loves him for that.

"We knew we had the stability at the back with some great defenders, we knew we had a great base and we knew once we went ahead we just knew that we were so solid at the back that if we score two goals we’re not going to lose, guaranteed. We had Carlton (Morris) and Eli upfront, where they were causing havoc, it was a strong group and proved in the end when we got promoted.”

The victory saw Luton achieve a place in the Premier League for the first time in their history, with Mpanzu also writing himself into the record books by becoming the first player to ever go from non-league to the top flight with the same club. Asked if he had ever thought that would be possible after turning up, admittedly rather hesitantly, some 10 years earlier, Mpanzu, who finished with 412 outings, but is now looking for a new side this summer after his contract expired, added: “Hell no, I'll be honest, no, no way. Did I think Luton would get to the Prem? Or me be here when they get to the Prem?

"No. It's something that's very hard to do. Obviously I was the first person to do it, maybe not the last, but it’s very tough to do and to imagine Luton in the Prem at that stage with the training facilities we had and the pitch. The stadium wasn’t too bad, but the pitch, if you see videos, there were just mud patches everywhere, so no. But listen, dreams come true and I’ve been at the club for 11, 12 years, so to get to the Prem is a special feeling. There were special players in that squad, everyone else that I played with has helped along the journey, so it's a special place and a special feeling.”