Dwight McNeil and Brennan Johnson Swap Deal Confirmed
Everton and Crystal Palace have agreed a straight swap that sends Dwight McNeil to Selhurst Park and Brennan Johnson to Goodison Park, in one of the more eye-catching deals of the summer.
Both players are scheduled for medicals on Monday, a source told ESPN, with the clubs opting for a like-for-like exchange of wide forwards as they try to reshape their attacks before the new season kicks off.
McNeil finally gets his Palace move
For McNeil, 26, this is the move that slipped through his fingers once already.
The winger has played 114 times for Everton, often carrying a heavy creative burden in a side fighting at the wrong end of the table. In February, he came close to joining Palace on loan, only for the deal to collapse late. What might normally have been just another failed transfer became a public flashpoint.
His partner, Megan Sharpley, took to Instagram at the time to criticise what she described as Palace’s “radio silence” around the breakdown, highlighting the emotional strain of the process.
“We live in a world where everyone is aware of how big a problem mental health is,” she wrote.
“So, in football, why do we find it acceptable because these young men are on a lot of money and that's OK to mess and toy with their mental health and that it's just part of the job?
“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.”
Those words underlined how raw the situation had become. Now, the move that once unravelled is back on, this time on a permanent basis and wrapped inside a direct swap.
Palace, fresh from a European qualification that belies their 15th-place league finish, gain a proven Premier League wide player entering his peak years. McNeil’s work rate and delivery from the flanks should fit neatly into a side that has been trying to add more end product around its attacking core.
Johnson’s reset at Goodison
Heading the other way is Brennan Johnson, who only arrived at Palace from Tottenham in January.
The Wales international never quite found his spark in south London. Across 26 appearances, he failed to score, struggling to turn his pace and movement into tangible returns in front of goal. For a player whose game relies on confidence and rhythm, the numbers told their own story.
Everton, though, see an opportunity. Sean Dyche’s side finished 13th last season and often lacked cutting edge in wide areas. Johnson brings direct running, energy and versatility across the front line, attributes that could suit a team built on intensity and transition.
A change of environment, a different role, and the weight of a fresh start rather than a stalled spell at a new club — it is a reset Johnson badly needs.
An early-season subplot
The swap also drops a ready-made storyline into the opening weekend of the Premier League season.
Everton and Palace, separated by just two league places last term but on very different emotional trajectories — Palace buoyed by a Conference League triumph that booked them a Europa League place, Everton relieved simply to stabilise — meet straight away.
If the paperwork and medicals go through as planned, McNeil could line up in Palace colours against the club he is leaving behind, while Johnson may be thrown in against the team he never truly clicked with.
Two wingers, two fresh starts, one shared pitch on day one. Which club will look back on this as a smart trade, and which will wonder if they handed away exactly what they needed?
