Mpanzu ready to 'drink some champagne' if he makes history by going from non-league to the Premier League with Luton

Hatters midfielder Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu is ready to ‘drink some champagne’ if he makes history by becoming the first player to ever reach the Premier League from the National League this weekend, following what he hopes is a play-off final victory over Coventry City.

The 29-year-old joined Luton back in 2013 when they were in the Blue Square Bet Premier, initially brought in on loan by then manager John Still from West Ham United having made one first team appearance, part of a Hammers team along with current Town team-mate Dan Potts who won 2-0 in the Capital One Cup at Burnley.

Making his Hatters debut against Staines in the FA Trophy as a defender, Mpanzu then headed back to Upton Park, but returned to Luton in January, snapped up permanently, and he hasn’t looked back.

Winning the title just a few months later to end five years out of the Football League, he has gone on to play 367 times, the 12th most for the club in their history, as Town swiftly moved through League Two and League One to now sit 90 minutes away from the top flight, facing the Sky Blues at Wembley.

On potentially becoming the only person to have managed such a feat, the popular Mpanzu said: “It’s nice, it can motivate sometimes, but for me, even if I didn't come in the National League or League Two, to get to the Premier League is something special.

“So whatever club I would have done it with would have been nice, but coming from non-league to the Premier League is crazy, especially with one club, so in that terms it can motivate a little bit.

“Not a lot of people do it, hopefully this is the first.

"It’s been an achievement but you’ve got to have the staff and the managers and all the people at the stadium who believe in you, and I think they have done.

"That’s been great and you’ve got to put your performances in and be confident in what you do and how you go about your business.

“I think I’ve achieved that.

"There's one more 90 minutes, one more game to go and by Saturday, 7pm, we’ll drink some champagne.”

When Mpanzu first arrived at Luton as a 19-year-old, heading to Ely Way and then seeing Kenilworth Road for the first time, it was a world away from the plush surroundings he had been used to during his stint with West Ham.

Asked how he felt ahead of his move, the midfielder, who was flanked by former boss Still when speaking to the press on Tuesday afternoon, continued: “I came, saw the training ground, saw the stadium, and I was like, oh man, this is different from Upton Park and training at Chadwell Heath with West Ham, but listen, everything worked out in the end, we got promoted straight away.

“Doubts, no, did I want to come (on loan), absolutely not!

“This is not what I’m familiar with, but sometimes you’ve got to take the risks and I’ve got to thank John for signing me as look where I am now.

"It’s been a risk, but it’s been worth the risk and here we are, moments away from touching the Premier League, so it's been a good experience, I don’t want it to end on Saturday.

“Neil McDonald (assistant manager at West Ham) and Sam Allardyce (manager) said you’d better sign at Luton, so it was out of my hands, I was a bit like ‘yeah I’ll do that.’

"I signed on loan in December and then signed permanently in January, so that was done and done and here we are.

“Stuff like that happens, this is football, you think you’re going to play more, sometimes that doesn’t happen and sometimes you’ve got to leave the nest and fly away.

"That’s what I did, other guys followed me, Potts, El (Elliot Lee), Olly Lee, Marek Stech, all from West Ham came and have had good careers from here.

“Sometimes if it doesn’t work out at one place, it doesn’t mean you’re a bad footballer.

"It just means that place might not have been the right place for you, luckily I landed at Luton and here we are.”

Although he was taking the decision to leave a top flight club and drop out of the Football League, with no guarantee he would be back straight away, Mpanzu knew from the team he came into, that it wouldn’t be a long sojourn in the non-league circles.

He said: “It was a good team, we had good players, we had Benno (Paul Benson) who’s at the training ground now as a coach for the U18s.

"We had Andre Gray, Jake Howells, Mark Cullen, Matt Robinson, we had a good core of players and it made the transition easy as we went on to smoke a lot of teams sixes and sevens.

"Luke Guttridge was there as well, Alex Lawless who’s also a coach, we had a real, real good team and that team did well in that league that season.”

The midfielder always thought he had what it takes to make a return to the Premier League, which he hopes will now finally reach full circle on Saturday, adding: “Yes, in the fact of I knew my ability would get me there.

"Obviously you’ve got to have a great team around you, support, and football is not a one man team, unless you’ve got people like Messi and Ronaldo, it's a bit different.

"But when you’ve got belief, you know you can rise back to the top and Luton have done that in a short space of time.

"Ten years, it does seem a long period of time, but in football that’s a real quick rise and yes, I did.”

Over the years there has been plenty of interest in Mpanzu from would-be suitors, as although he did come close to leaving at the start of the 2021-22 campaign, he always thought Kenilworth Road was where his future was, adding: “Clubs come for you here and there, you come out of contract and you think ‘are you going to get a new one or not?’

"There’s been points where I could have moved, but I thought, look, this is where I want to be, I can have a good journey here.

"All the managers have come in have done well, it’s been a hell of a run and I’m still here, still trying to achieve something big.

“It is now home as I’ve been here so long and I don’t really know anything else.

"Being at West Ham put me in a good stead to achieve this, but Luton is what I know.

"I know the team, know the surrounding areas and it’s been a big part of my life.”