The education of Tyrick Mitchell: Journeys, idols & that winning feeling

This interview was initially published in the Crystal Palace v Sunderland programme in September 2025 - you can buy issues of the matchday programme by clicking HERE.

"Growing up if you’re a full-back,” former centre-back Jamie Carragher gleefully declared on Monday Night Football back in 2015. “You’re either a failed winger or a failed centre-back.

“I mean no-one wants to be a full-back as a kid… no-one wants to grow up and be a Gary Neville!”

In fairness to the former England and Liverpool defender, it’s a great line. But like so many great footballing quotes, it is a half-truth, at best.

It wasn’t the case for a young Tyrick Mitchell, who at that time was barely 16 years of age.

Then in Brentford’s academy and learning his trade, Mitchell wasn’t at all inhibited by the prospect of life as a full-back.

Saying he wanted to be Gary Neville would be a stretch, but one of Mitchell’s idols was another England great, and former Eagle, from the opposing flank – Ashley Cole.

“To be fair I played full-back pretty much throughout my time in the Academy,” he reflects on a sunny autumnal day at Copers Cope. “There was a brief time where I played centre-back.

“I didn’t mind defending, I enjoyed it. It’s different for different players. I know a lot of players who are in [academies] from a young age and they either move back, or even get pushed forward.

“But sometimes that’s just because that’s how you’re going to make it into the team and get the most minutes, which is what you need when you’re learning.

“A lot of players need to be moved [positionally] just to get a foot through the door.”

The wing-back’s own journey to the Premier League was far from straightforward. Mitchell developed his game in the Brentford academy for four years, impressing plenty of coaches and scouts along the way.

Then, out of nowhere, Brentford made a decision to shut down their academy operation. Mitchell had previously been offered his scholarship but suddenly wouldn’t be able to continue his journey with the club.

Thankfully, any fleeting doubts about it impacting his chances of playing football were quickly put at ease.

Having built up something of a reputation as one of the standout players from the under-18 side, he wasn’t short of offers.

“I actually wasn’t thinking about my future at the time,” Mitchell says. “I wasn’t focusing on football or anything to be fair, because it was GSCE exam time.

“I was more focused on that. I always knew that I would find a club and I felt like I was good enough to find a club, but I wasn’t really hell-bent on just ‘football, football, football,’ I was in school and I gave that my best.

“So once Brentford’s academy shut down, it just went to the back of my mind.”

We put it to him that this must have shown on GCSE results day. “I don’t know about smashed it,” he laughs. “Let’s not talk about the results… but it was okay.”

Within a few months Mitchell was signed on with Crystal Palace. By the time the 2019/20 season was drawing to a belated close – due to the Covid-19 pandemic – Mitchell was making appearances for the first-team.

In five action-packed years since, he has managed to lock down his place in the Palace team, maintaining a remarkable level of consistency.

First breaking through under Roy Hodgson, Mitchell excelled, to the point where England came calling in 2022. Winning two caps against Switzerland and Ivory Coast, he looked undaunted by the international stage.

Six months ago, asking Mitchell the highlight of his time at Palace might have been hard to predict.

But following the events of Saturday, 17th May 2025, where he and his teammates brought home that first major trophy, it isn’t hard to guess the answer.

“I couldn’t really gauge the feeling of what it would be like before the game,” Mitchell explains. “Because I didn’t really think about what it would actually be like winning a trophy.

“You see other players on TV, winning other trophies or the FA Cup in previous years, but that can’t really prepare you.

“I’ve thought about that moment a lot since, but honestly, it’s just indescribable. I suppose it’s just like a numb feeling, probably because you can’t take in what is actually happening.

“But it also gives you this feeling of wanting to go and win something again. You want to be back celebrating to take more in the next time.

“Football never stops, so you’re moving on quickly – we had a game just three days after! The new season is then soon coming up.

“Often footage of the game or the parade will just come on the TV in the background or maybe on YouTube – it still doesn’t feel real, a few months on.”

The celebrations might be a blur, but at least rewatching the game never gets old. Like the rest of the back five, there was a huge defensive shift to get through against Manchester City’s impressive attack. But Mitchell never stopped grafting, for the 100 minutes or so that were played that afternoon.

“I just remember at the final whistle, adrenaline took over. We had been defending so much towards the end… obviously we had 10 minutes added on and it felt like it would never end.

“It was relief – relief that all our hard work had paid off – on hearing that sound at full-time.

“I just ran to Jefferson [Lerma] because he was closest to me on the pitch, I couldn’t go any further. But within a minute everyone was together, it was an amazing feeling.”

You might think after such a draining, albeit exhilarating, moment that the wing-back was probably ready for a rest in the off-season. On the contrary, he never wanted it to end.

“I had a decent rest over the summer,” he adds. “But also, part of me didn’t want it to stop. We had momentum, with how well that season ended you just want it to keep going.

“If I need to relax away from football I can do it. I’ll just watch movies, relax, stay off my phone for a while and shut out social media. It’s never been a problem for me.

“Naturally, whether you win a game or lose a game, it’ll stay in your head for the next few hours.

“The faster you can move on, the better it is really.”

It’s probably a good thing Mitchell gets his rest and relaxation when needed.

While his all-round game has developed significantly since Oliver Glasner arrived as manager in 2024, the Austrian’s deployment of attacking wing-backs means Mitchell expends as much as energy as anyone – up and down the left channel throughout.

It was natural, therefore, that when Ben Chilwell arrived at Palace halfway through last season, rotation between the two seemed a possibility. Chilwell was another specialist in the left wing-back role, having won the Champions League playing in that position.

Instead, Mitchell’s excellent form meant it became impossible to shift him from the starting line-up. Mitchell started five of Palace’s six ties on the road to FA Cup glory and played all but six minutes of the run from the quarter-finals onwards.

“There’s not always been someone direct in my position since I got into the team,” Mitchell says. “But every footballer knows the game is about competition.

“There’s always going to be at least one or two people in your position whether they’re older than you or younger than you. It’s down to you and them to compete, train hard and give your best.

“But it’s a normal thing – every professional athlete in sport, not even just football, will have had to go through competition.

“And when it’s healthy competition you can take little bits from someone else’s game and try to better your own game, and it pushes you to the limit to become better and want better for yourself and for the team.

“It’s not something you need to talk about, just when you’re training you can watch what they are doing, and it improves you as well. Hopefully, that is what happened last season.”

So how does Mitchell follow up last season, arguably his best to date? It may appear a daunting task, after that day at Wembley. First things first, experience a new challenge.

“Playing in Europe… you’ve got to enjoy that,” he adds. “The best players are playing Europe, so I’ve always wanted [to experience] that.

“It’s exciting and I can’t wait to experience it. Watching the draw I didn’t have a particular team I wanted to play in mind. I just wanted to travel to places I probably wouldn’t go to outside of football.

“I don’t mind how far it is, I just want to experience the different atmospheres.”

For a player with international experience and a World Cup at the end of the season, we naturally ask whether Mitchell has any particular goals or ambitions for 2025/26.

But rather than grand individual aims, he keeps it simple. “I just want to keep winning plenty of matches,” he pauses. “Because that is when football is fun.

“The second half of last season, and to be fair the last part of the season before, have been the most enjoyable times.

“People forget but it’s hard to win games in the Premier League. So when you’re winning lots of games, you forget everything else, it’s just a great time to be involved. That’s when you can enjoy it.”

Young players growing up wanting to be a full-back? The jury might still be out.

But kids playing now will certainly grow up wanting to be the next Tyrick Mitchell.