Everton and Crystal Palace Swap Wingers: Johnson and McNeil Exchange
Everton and Crystal Palace have traded wingers and, in the process, handed the new Premier League season an early storyline.
Dwight McNeil is heading to Selhurst Park. Brennan Johnson is bound for Merseyside. Two wide men, two careers at a crossroads, one deal that suits everyone – or at least that’s the gamble.
Johnson’s reset on Merseyside
Everton have tied Johnson to a four-year contract, a commitment that underlines how firmly they believe they can revive a player whose last move never quite caught fire.
At 25, the Wales international has already lived several footballing lives. A big-money switch from Nottingham Forest to Tottenham Hotspur in 2023 for a fee in excess of £45m. A decisive strike in a Europa League final last May. Then a £35m move to Crystal Palace in January, which promised a fresh start but never truly ignited.
Twenty-six appearances in all competitions for Palace, no goals. Plenty of work, plenty of running, but no end product to match the price tag.
Everton are betting that Goodison Park – and Sean Dyche’s straight-line, hard-running football – is the place where Johnson’s sharp movement and directness finally marry with consistent numbers.
Johnson made it clear, speaking to the club’s in-house channel, that this was not a move he had to be talked into. He said he “immediately wanted to come and be part” of the club once the interest was made clear, pointing to the manager, the squad and what he sees as a team moving in the right direction.
Everton, who finished 13th last season after fading badly at the end of the campaign, need that sense of upward motion to be more than just rhetoric. Johnson believes they can push for Europe again and talked about doing “everything to get back into European competition”, stressing that Everton “has the ambition to win trophies”.
For a club still trying to shake off years of turbulence, those are big words. Now they need big performances.
McNeil finally gets his Palace move
On the other side of the deal, there is a transfer that has been simmering for months.
McNeil, 26, was on the brink of joining Palace back in February. A loan-to-buy agreement was in place, structured to become a £20m permanent move this summer. The medical was done. The move looked nailed on.
Then the paperwork beat the deadline. The transfer collapsed, leaving McNeil in limbo and prompting his partner, Megan Sharpley, to accuse Palace on social media of toying with his mental health. It was an unusually raw public glimpse into the emotional fallout that can sit behind a failed deal.
Now, at the second attempt, Palace have their man. McNeil has agreed a contract until 2030, a long-term commitment that reflects both his age and his proven record in the Premier League.
Since joining Everton from Burnley for £20m in July 2022, McNeil has quietly put together a solid body of work: 15 goals and 19 assists in 128 games in all competitions. Not headline-grabbing numbers, but the output of a reliable, left-footed wide player who can deliver from open play and set pieces and who works relentlessly off the ball.
Palace, underlined by chairman Steve Parish describing him as “a player with proven ability in the Premier League”, know exactly what they are getting.
They are also offering something McNeil has not tasted at Everton: recent silverware. Palace have lifted the FA Cup, the Community Shield and the Europa Conference League over the past two seasons, a run of success that has shifted the club’s profile and expectations.
McNeil did not hide his excitement at stepping into that environment, pointing to “great success over the last two seasons” and making it clear he wants to be part of that momentum. For a player who has spent much of his top-flight career fighting at the wrong end of the table, the lure of a dressing room that has learned how to win trophies is obvious.
A swap with edge – and an early reunion
Swap deals at this level remain rare. They require timing, alignment of valuations and, crucially, two players willing to jump in opposite directions. Here, the pieces have finally clicked.
Everton gain a rapid, versatile attacker with 45 caps for Wales and the experience of scoring on a European final stage, hoping he can add the cutting edge they lacked as last season petered out.
Palace gain a left-sided technician with a trusted Premier League record, someone to feed a forward line that has already shown it can carry a club deep into cup competitions.
There is no long wait to see who settles quicker. The fixture list has made sure of that.
Everton and Crystal Palace meet on 22 August at Hill Dickinson Stadium on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. McNeil against his former club. Johnson against his former club. Two fresh shirts, two familiar faces, and one immediate test of who really won this deal.
