Everton's Wingers: A Season of Change and Uncertainty
Everton’s flanks are being ripped up and rewritten. By choice, by circumstance, and by the market.
For most of last season, David Moyes knew exactly what he was sending out wide: Dwight McNeil on the right, Iliman Ndiaye on the left. It was predictable on the teamsheet, not always on the pitch. Now, both may be gone by opening day.
McNeil is on the brink of a move to Crystal Palace in a revived deal that has taken the long way round. Ndiaye is being courted by Al Hilal. Two pillars of Moyes’ shape, both edging towards the exit. The wings that framed Everton’s play are suddenly empty.
A deal that broke down – and came back
McNeil’s story is already one of the sagas of Everton’s year.
Back in February, he was virtually a Palace player. The clubs had agreed a loan-to-buy move, a £20m permanent transfer lined up for this summer. Medical done. Bags almost packed. Then, at the last, the move collapsed. Not over money, not over fitness, but paperwork. Forms not completed in time, a deal that simply died on the clock.
The human side burst into view when McNeil’s partner, Megan Sharpley, spoke out on social media. She questioned how a club could drag a player through that kind of emotional turbulence and then leave him with nothing at the final whistle.
"To have something promised to you, to have been dragged along on an emotional rollercoaster and to be toyed with until the final minute. For that to be torn away from you at the last second with absolutely no explanation has hurt more than I can say," she wrote.
For a while, it looked like the end of the road. Instead, the move has been revived – this time with Brennan Johnson involved in the exchange. The details of the structure sit with the negotiators, but the direction of travel is clear: McNeil to Selhurst Park, Johnson to Goodison.
For Moyes, that means one of his most trusted wide options is effectively already out of the planning board.
Ndiaye interest and a shifting depth chart
On the opposite flank, Ndiaye’s situation adds another layer of uncertainty. Al Hilal have expressed interest, and when a Saudi club leans in, every club in Europe pays attention. Everton are no different.
If Ndiaye follows McNeil out of the door, Moyes will walk into the new season with neither of last year’s starting wingers. That’s not a tweak. That’s a rebuild.
So what does he have left?
Grealish, Dibling, George, Rohl: the internal puzzle
Jack Grealish is the obvious headline name. On loan from Manchester City last season, he played 22 games and looked every inch the elite operator in the first half of the campaign. He gave Everton control, carried the ball under pressure, and knitted attacks together before a foot injury in January cut him down just as he was finding full rhythm.
A return would change everything for Moyes on the flanks, but right now it’s uncertain. No agreement, no guarantee. Just a possibility.
Without him, the picture becomes more experimental.
Tyler Dibling arrived from Southampton for £40m last summer, a statement fee for a young wide player. His first season, though, drifted. Only four Premier League starts, his pathway blocked when Grealish came through the door. He spent too much time on the fringes, watching others play the role he was bought to fill.
This year, there’s nowhere to hide. With McNeil close to leaving and Ndiaye wanted elsewhere, Dibling’s opportunity is staring him in the face. He is no longer the luxury project. He is a potential starter.
Tyrique George is another live option. Signed permanently from Chelsea for £24m after a successful loan spell, he made 11 appearances last season and started once. Those numbers are modest, but the impression was not. Moyes publicly praised him as an "excellent boy with an excellent work-rate" at the end of his initial four-month spell. Managers don’t hand out that kind of endorsement lightly.
George brings energy, pressing, and a willingness to run without the ball – qualities that matter when Moyes builds a side. With a full pre-season under his belt and a manager who clearly trusts his attitude, he is pushing hard for a regular role out wide.
Then there is Merlin Rohl. Not a natural headline act on the flank, but he has already filled in there and could do so again. His versatility gives Moyes another lever to pull if the market doesn’t break Everton’s way or if injuries bite.
A new look on the touchlines
Strip it back and the picture is stark.
Last season: McNeil right, Ndiaye left. Clear, consistent, familiar.
This season: McNeil likely gone, Ndiaye wanted, Grealish uncertain, and the next wave – Dibling, George, Rohl – stepping towards the light.
For Moyes, that means choice and risk in equal measure. He can lean on youth and potential, back the legs and hunger of Dibling and George, or push hard for a marquee return like Grealish to steady the shape. He might try all of it across the first months of the campaign.
What’s certain is this: Everton’s wide areas will not look the same when the new season kicks off. The only question now is whether that overhaul becomes the making of Moyes’ next Everton side, or the gamble that defines it.
