Brennan Johnson Joins Everton: A Perfect Match?

Lee Trundle has no doubts. In his eyes, Brennan Johnson has walked into exactly the right club, with exactly the right manager, at exactly the right time.

The Wales forward has joined Everton from Crystal Palace on a four-year deal, part of a swap that sent Dwight McNeil to Selhurst Park. On paper, it is a bold, balanced piece of business. In reality, it drops a 25-year-old with serious pedigree into a fanbase starved of goals and silverware, and a manager who has built a career on squeezing every drop out of willing runners.

Trundle, the former Wrexham, Swansea City, Bristol City and Leeds United striker – and an avowed Everton supporter – can barely hide his enthusiasm.

“With Johnson coming in, I think that's a great signing and he's someone I'm excited about,” he said on the BBC’s Feast of Football podcast. “I think Moyes will get the best out of him, I think Moyes is a good manager for him.”

That line matters. David Moyes has never been one for luxury forwards. He wants aggression, discipline, a shift put in. Johnson, who has played across the frontline and even at wing-back, fits that mould: quick, direct, and prepared to run beyond defenders all night.

And Trundle believes that if the goals start to flow, the relationship with the Goodison crowd – or Hill Dickinson Stadium, as it now stands – will ignite quickly.

“I think he'll go in, and once he starts scoring, I think the fans will take to him,” he said. “I think he'll love being at a club like Everton because once you get in and score those goals, the fans will idolise you, especially because that's what they've been crying out for.”

Everton have indeed been crying out. They fashion chances, then waste them. Beto and Thierno Barry have flickered rather than burned, leaving Moyes with a familiar dilemma: trust the incumbents, or reset his attack.

Trundle would not overcomplicate it. He sees Johnson through a No 9’s lens.

“If you look at Everton, they create a lot of chances, they just don't take the chances,” he said. “I think if he's in those positions to get those chances, he takes more of them.”

It is a simple argument, but not a naïve one. Johnson has already shown he can live with pressure. He was a key part of the Nottingham Forest side that surged out of the Championship under Steve Cooper in 2021-22. He then moved to Tottenham Hotspur and wrote his name into European folklore by scoring the winner against Manchester United in a Europa League final.

Last season he lifted the Conference League with Crystal Palace. Two European trophies, a promotion, and still only 25. This is not a prospect arriving on Merseyside. This is a forward with a catalogue of big nights behind him.

Trundle expects that experience to translate into decisive movement in the final third.

“He will go in behind, he'll score goals himself and create himself as well,” he said. A runner, a finisher, a creator – and crucially, someone who attacks space, the currency Moyes values most.

Not everyone is looking at the move through rose-tinted glasses, though. Nathan Blake, another former Wales striker, knows exactly what waits for Johnson if the early weeks do not go to plan.

Everton have not lifted a trophy in 31 years. The drought has not softened expectations. If anything, it has hardened them.

“Everton fans are demanding,” Blake said. “Whether you like it or not, it doesn't matter if you haven't won a trophy for a long time, that's a big club. I think there'll be more demand on him there.”

This is the other side of the coin. The new stadium, the history, the sense of a sleeping giant – all of it creates a stage that can elevate or expose. Johnson arrives as a Europa League winner, as a former club-record signing for Palace in January, and as the headline act in a high-profile swap deal. The price is not the fee; the price is expectation.

Blake sees the safety net in the dugout. Moyes and assistant Billy McKinlay bring years of Premier League know-how and a reputation for improving players who buy into the work.

“Having Moyes and [assistant manager Billy] McKinlay could be a good thing, but if he doesn't produce in the first 10 to 15 games, it catches up with you,” Blake warned. “The coaching and the experience of Moyes and his backroom staff, they'll coach him to improve.”

That is the tightrope Johnson now walks. On one side, Trundle’s vision: a restless, intelligent forward finally given the central role and service to become the focal point of a big-club attack. On the other, Blake’s reality check: 10 to 15 games to convince a demanding fanbase that he is more solution than gamble.

The talent is not in question. The medals prove that. The only unknown is whether Johnson can turn Everton’s chances into goals quickly enough to keep the crowd with him and give Moyes the cutting edge his side has lacked.

If he does, the idolisation Trundle talks about will not take long. If he doesn’t, that famous patience on Merseyside will be tested again – and so will Everton’s latest big attacking bet.