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.
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