Exeter City star Mitchell on social media, setbacks and tweeting like Tyson Fury
"A footballer with a personality and a fan with an opinion".
Demetri Mitchell's Twitter bio speaks volumes about his outlook on life, but the Exeter City star is one of the few professional footballers actively trying to embrace social media rather than shy away from it.
In an era riddled with robotic soundbites and players subletting their social media accounts to PR brands, Mitchell is going against the grain. Driven by a lifetime of conjuring up the perfect answers in media interviews, the Manchester United academy graduate has a new goal: changing the way footballers interact with people online.
"I said to my friends and family kind of light-heartedly that I was going to change how people view footballers and how players interact with people," Mitchell tells Mirror Football.
"That was the meaning for me to voice my opinion on social media, not to just gain some followers. I strongly believe that fans will appreciate it more and even the media, being more like a regular person and less like robots. There's positives that can come out of social media - it doesn't have to be all negative and arguments.
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"I feel like players, and even managers, always have the politically correct answer. I've been doing that myself for years; always thinking of the right thing to say or the correct thing to post. But then I don't feel like I'm being my genuine self. So I thought to myself, 'I'm 26 now, I'm playing at Exeter and I'm a journeyman footballer', so I've just been speaking more freely about how I view the game and how I feel."
Mitchell's timeline is a refreshing shift from the posts you would perhaps see belonging to players in the Premier League. Debates around players, light-hearted banter and puzzling real-life polls now populate the versatile midfielder's profile.
It feels as though Mitchell is letting his words go as a boxer would their hands inside the ring. He stands out for all the right reasons, for being unapologetically authentic in an industry full of criticism for players who try to paint the perfect picture in 280 characters or less.
Fittingly, not only does Mitchell already feel better for speaking off the cuff, his approach has yielded plenty of positive messages and support from his peers, as well as the inevitable negativity that goes hand in hand with sharing online.
Mitchell is flourishing at Exeter City after being forced out of Hibernian last January (PA)"The amount of people that have reached out to speak about it [has been huge]. The response I've had from fans too has kind of reiterated to me that I'm not doing a bad thing here. The reaction from the manager and the players [at Exeter] has been hugely positive as well. People outside of football have said what I've been doing is refreshing.
"Listen, I watch Premier League football, I watch the Champions League...I understand that I'm probably not going to get to that level now. But I'm still a fan of football and I still watch it.
"I don't think it's bad for me to say I prefer Neymar over [Kylian] Mbappe; that's just me speaking from a fan's point of view. I'm not saying that Mbappe is crap, just that I prefer Neymar. People will come back and say 'You're nowhere near that level', and I'm not saying I am, but at the end of the day I'm still a football fan.
"When I first started doing it there were loads of comments telling me to stay off Twitter and get back to football - can I not be on Twitter? I like boxing and I see guys like Conor Benn, Terence Crawford and Tyson Fury tweeting whatever they want; if they can, why can't I?
Mitchell scored the decisive goal in Exeter's big win over Luton Town in the Carabao Cup last month (PA)"I don't feel like people have such a strong opinion of people in sports like boxing, golf and tennis doing stuff outside of their sport. I don't see what the problem is in doing what you want in your spare time as long as you're eating right, sleeping right and training well.
"Somebody like Jesse Lingard, when he did well at West Ham, nobody had anything negative to say about him being on Twitter or TikTok. But when he's not playing as well, that's the reason why apparently. It doesn't make sense."
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On the pitch, Mitchell is flourishing after a tough period. A combination of injuries and Covid meant that his release from Manchester United was a foregone conclusion back in the summer of 2020.
He knew it was coming, but it still hit him hard. Understandably, given United are his club, the highs were euphoric, but the lows hit much harder.
"In the moment, you're just living it. You're eating dinner with players like Rooney, Zlatan and Pogba and you don't think anything of it. It becomes normal. When you come out of it, then you realise what you were achieving [just by being at United].
"When the call came, I already knew, but I didn't think it would hit me [that hard]. I hadn't played for 18 months so I knew it was coming, but it still knocks you. I had a lump in my throat."
After a lengthy spell not playing, Mitchell's agent put him in touch with Gary Caldwell: a call that has had a seismic impact on his playing career. Caldwell has gone from doing one-to-one sessions with Mitchell on a field in Wilmslow, to coaching him at Exeter City.
The League One outfit are a club on the up; fan-owned and sustainable, the Grecians have made a storming start to the 2023/24 campaign and were top of the division just a few short weeks ago.
Mitchell scored the winner in a showpiece Carabao Cup tie against Luton Town of the Premier League last month. Much like his career, though, there was a price to pay for that moment, with Mitchell later accumulating a red card.
Exeter lost several key players over the summer: Kevin McDonald, Jevani Brown and Sam Nombe all left the club, the latter for a seven-figure fee. Influential loanee Jay Stansfield also returned to Fulham. Caldwell's influence has been key.
Injuries and Covid meant Mitchell hadn't played for around 18 months prior to his release from Manchester United (Robbie Jay Barratt/AMA)"When you're playing football in League One, that big turnover of players happens quite a lot. You need a good manager who can get the best out of players. He [Caldwell] has definitely done that.
"I think he's got a really good relationship with the players. Some managers can scream and shout too much and that makes you afraid to make a mistake. I scored a goal a few weeks back [against Leyton Orient] where I've probably got no right to take the shot. That's because I'm confident and, for me, that confidence is instilled by the manager.
"I'm a creative person, so I like to play with a bit of freedom in the final third. He's allowed me to express myself, but I've also got that respect for the manager to do anything he asks of me. That might change game to game: it could be running in behind one week and then showing in a No.10 position. Anything he asks me to do, I'll do to the best of my ability because of the faith he's shown in me.
"Tactically, I'd say he's one of the best managers I've worked under. His knowledge of the game...his football I.Q is very, very high."
Mitchell and Exeter have grand aspirations on the pitch, but he also has dreams off it, too. His clothing brand, Benir Clothing, occupies plenty of his free time and is on the up.
Exeter City manager Gary Caldwell has had a big influence on Mitchell's career (Michael Regan/Getty)Like his playing career, that aspect of Mitchell's life also changed during Covid, which afforded him more time to delve deeper into the business skills he would need to hone in order to push the brand forward.
It fills my spare time rather than sitting on the Playstation all day. I wouldn't say I've always been passionate about clothing - I was actually more passionate about the business side of things - but I thought it was something interesting that I could do well with.
"I've had to figure out how to make it work, like researching how to market it, what website to use and social media. I've got it to a place where it's ticking over nicely, but it was a sharp learning curve."
Away from that, Mitchell is determined to come good on his vow to make a difference online.
"I would 100 percent be open and willing to work with the PFA in the future. There's no real blueprint from clubs on how to conduct yourself on social media, you just look at how the rest of the players at the club operate really. You're just told don't do this, don't do that but it's obvious stuff.
"I understand that Arsenal and Man United players get thousands of comments on posts, so not everybody is able to interact in the same way, but I like letting fans see what we are human. Social media can be really beneficial for players. Hopefully people are seeing that."
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