Everton and Crystal Palace Swap Wingers: McNeil Joins Palace, Johnson Heads to Everton
Everton and Crystal Palace have agreed a straight swap that underlines just how restless this Premier League summer has become.
Dwight McNeil is heading to Selhurst Park. Brennan Johnson is bound for Goodison. No add‑ons, no complicated clauses. Just two wingers changing shirts, with medicals scheduled for Monday to close the deal, according to a source who spoke to ESPN.
McNeil’s second shot at Palace
For McNeil, 26, this is the move that slipped through his fingers once already.
The Everton winger has played 114 times for the club, often carrying a heavy creative burden in a side fighting at the wrong end of the table. Back in February, he was close to joining Palace on loan, only for the move to collapse late. The fallout was raw and public.
His partner, Megan Sharpley, took aim at Palace on Instagram after what she described as “radio silence” when the deal broke down, questioning how a club could leave a player on what she called an “emotional rollercoaster” with no explanation.
“We live in a world where everyone is aware of how big a problem mental health is,” she wrote, before asking why it is seen as acceptable in football to “mess and toy” with players’ emotions just because they are well paid.
Her words struck a nerve across the game. Promises, hope, then nothing. No move. No clarity. Just the familiar cold edge of the transfer market.
Now the same club is about to become McNeil’s new home.
It is a striking twist. Palace, who came close to taking him on a temporary deal, are now committing to him fully, betting that his left foot and work rate can give them a different dimension out wide in a season where they will juggle domestic duties with European football.
Johnson’s quick Palace exit
Going the other way is Brennan Johnson, whose time at Selhurst Park barely had time to settle.
The Wales international only arrived in January from Tottenham, a mid-season addition meant to add pace and direct running to the Palace attack. He brought the running. The goals never followed.
Johnson failed to score in 26 appearances for the south London club. For an attacking signing in a team that often plays on the break, that return leaves little room for sentiment when a deal like this lands on the table.
Everton, though, see opportunity. Johnson is still just 23, still quick, still capable of stretching defences in a way Sean Dyche’s side often lacked last season. For a club that finished 13th and spent much of the campaign trying to grind out results, his profile offers something different: vertical threat, energy, a willingness to drive at full-backs.
This is a reset for him. A new crowd, a new role, a new manager who may lean into his strengths rather than his shortcomings.
Two clubs, one swap, very different pressures
On paper, the clubs sit close together. Everton ended last season 13th, Palace 15th. The reality is more nuanced.
Palace come into this campaign with the glow of European qualification after winning the Conference League and booking a place in the Europa League. That triumph has raised expectations and workload in equal measure. McNeil arrives into a squad that now needs depth and reliability as much as flashes of flair.
Everton’s landscape feels different. Survival and stability still dominate the conversation on Merseyside. The club’s margin for error has been thin for years. Johnson’s arrival is not just about potential resale value; it is about finding someone who can turn tight games with a run, a cross, or a rare burst of incision.
The straight nature of the swap tells its own story. Both clubs are willing to back their judgement, to trade one type of winger for another, to gamble that a change of scenery unlocks something that has been missing.
An opening-day subplot already written
The fixture list has added its own sense of drama.
Everton and Crystal Palace meet on the opening weekend of the Premier League season. McNeil against his old club. Johnson against the one he barely got to know.
No need for manufactured narratives there. The first whistle of the new campaign will bring them all rushing in.
