Still: Pelly deal was done on the quiet

The 20-year-old had impressived massively during his spell on loan at Kenilworth Road from Premier League West Ham United, with some powerhouse displays in midfield.

He returned to Upton Park due to injury, but after being given the green light to pursue him permanently by the Hatters, Still didn’t want anyone else pinching Ruddock Mpanzu from under their noses.

He added: “We didn’t say a word, we just dealt with it how it was.

“Since we signed him, I’ve had calls from different places saying ‘how did you sign him? What did you pay for him?’

“We had to pay, but it was something we were all happy with and I think if it was out there, he would have had other clubs coming to him as opposed to him waiting to see what would happen.

“There wasn’t anything we could have done about that if other clubs approached him, but he wasnt actively looking for other clubs.

“As soon as we said Luton, he said lovely. The conversation between player and agent was five minutes.

“He said I want to go to Luton and it was sorted. Once we were all happy with the deal we did it, it just worked perfectly.”

After the negotiations between the two clubs started, Still was surprised with how swiftly the deal went through too.

He said: “Someone said, lets ask the question. We asked the question and we got a positive.

“We followed it through and we didn’t have a problem at all with West Ham, we negotiated that pretty quickly.

“Pelly himself, we didn’t know how that would go. Would he be thinking to himself, well West Ham don’t want me and I understand that, is there a team in a higher league?

“Which you should do, you should explore all your avenues, but he just said I want to come to Luton when West Ham didn’t want me.

“Once it got done, it got done very quickly. I would have thought we’d been hanging on to see if there was anyone else involved, but once he’d had the conversation with West Ham and West Ham said we think it’s in the best interest that you go, it went through in a couple of hours, it was that quick.”

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