Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu leads Luton from non-league to playoff final

I t is Tuesday afternoon and an hour or so after training Pelly Ruddock Mpanzu, wearing white crocs studded with Super Mario, Superman and Batman charms, walks into the Eric Morecambe Lounge at Kenilworth Road, Luton Town’s creaking but charismatic ground. The room – home to trophy cabinets, photos of comedy nights here and a panoramic mural with a timeline celebrating the club’s storied past – has an orange glow and Mpanzu a beaming smile as he embraces John Still, the manager who brought him to the club a decade ago, when Luton were toiling in non-league.

A teenage Mpanzu initially joined on loan from West Ham, making his debut at Staines Town in the FA Trophy in front of a crowd of 621, before Luton paid £50,000 to make the move permanent. Those who know Mpanzu talk of a laid-back character with a contagious personality and he is calmness personified in the buildup to the Championship playoff final, the most lucrative one-off game in the world. The 29-year-old grew up in Hendon, north London, and could spy Wembley from his back garden. He remembers the iconic arch lighting up in the distance. “I’ve been chilled, I’ve been myself,” he says of the buildup this week. “There is no need to be nervous because we know what we can do on the pitch against Coventry. We’ve gone about our days the same as we have the whole season.”

It is all a long way from playing Sunday League for Belmont United, earning £50 a week after joining Boreham Wood at 16, when the £13 fine for bookings hit hard, and even the times when Luton would train on a field off Ely Road, where dog walkers would complain about low-flying balls. Back then the training ground was portable buildings and one rack of gym equipment had to satisfy an entire squad.