Pelly-Ruddock Mpanzu has laughed off jokes about Kenilworth Road’s away entrance saying it’s one thing that will give Luton an advantage in the Premier League.
The midfielder is the first-ever player to go from the non-league to the top flight with one club and the Oak Road turnstiles, tucked between terraced housing, barely raised an eyebrow in the lower leagues when he first joined on loan from West Ham in 2013.
And despite it being a well-known feature of the 118-year-old stadium, which was there when Town were last at English football’s top table 31 years ago, the Hatters’ return has seen an explosion of focus on their home.
No doubt that will continue when fans of established Premier League clubs meme even further into oblivion the fact that they’ll have to walk up a set of stairs that overlook the neighbouring back gardens.
Soon after the 6-5 penalty shootout victory over Coventry, the club made their own perfect response to the viral trend of criticising the Oak Road entrance with a photo tweeted that showed a new Premier League sign above the turnstiles.
“It’s funny, man,” said Mpanzu when asked his opinion on the jokes made about the unique stadium feature.
“If it’s an advantage to us, we’ll take it. I think it’s going to have a lick of paint. It’s not looking too good now, but it’ll be a Premier League ground next year.”
Work is already underway to upgrade Kenilworth Road’s old Bobber’s Stand to the tune of £10million, to meet the media requirements of top division football.
Fans are now hoping Mpanzu pens a new deal with his and those of Tom Lockyer, Amari’i Bell and Luke Berry expiring at the end of the month.
They’ve all been offered new deals and negotiations are taking place, but asked during the Wembley celebrations if he’s looking forward to playing the Premier League, the DR Congo international said: “It should be good. Everyone can come and see our away stand and our away end and see if they want to jump in a garden themselves, but it’s a good feeling.”
Luton are already being written off as relegation fodder, even though all three promoted teams last term stayed up, but after an unprecedented decade of success, Mpanzu is confident of beating the odds again.
And the Town stalwart joked about beating the league’s lowest ever points total set by Derby County in 2007/08, when the Rams won just one game and managed 11 points.
“I think everyone has to have the belief to feel at home in the Premier League,” said Mpanzu,.
“It’s going to be a tough task. I think the boys just want to beat Derby’s record, I don’t know what that is, but nobody wants that low points total, so if we do it, we’re going to try and do it.
“It will be a big task for us to try and remain in the Premier League. You’ve got a lot of big spenders in there, so we’re going to try and do our best to do what we can, play the way we can, make this place (Kenilworth Rd) a fortress.
“A lot of teams that come here have struggled, so that’s what we want to try and do, do our best.”
