Everton and Crystal Palace Swap: McNeil Joins Palace, Johnson Heads to Everton

Everton and Crystal Palace have agreed a straight swap that sends Dwight McNeil to Selhurst Park and brings Brennan Johnson to Goodison, a source has told ESPN – a quietly dramatic deal with a long backstory.

Both players are due to undergo medicals on Monday, tying up a move that almost happened six months ago and left a sour taste.

McNeil finally gets his Palace move

For McNeil, 26, this is the transfer that refused to go away. The winger has been a regular presence for Everton, making 114 appearances and often carrying a heavy creative load in a side fighting its way through turbulent seasons on and off the pitch.

Back in February, he came close to joining Palace on loan. The move collapsed late, with no public explanation, and the fallout spilled beyond the usual transfer gossip cycle. His partner, Megan Sharpley, took to Instagram to condemn what she described as Palace’s “radio silence” during the process and to highlight the emotional toll of a deal that seemed promised, then vanished at the last moment.

“We live in a world where everyone is aware of how big a problem mental health is,” she wrote, questioning how football can still treat players’ emotions as disposable simply because of their salaries.

“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 hung over the aborted move. Now, the transfer is back on – but this time as part of a headline swap, not a short-term fix.

McNeil arrives at Palace as a proven Premier League operator entering what should be his peak years, tasked with adding end product and work-rate to a side that finished 15th in the league but punched above its weight in Europe, winning the Conference League to secure a Europa League place.

Johnson’s reset at Goodison

Going the other way is Brennan Johnson, whose short stint at Palace never caught fire.

The Wales international only joined from Tottenham in January. Twenty-six appearances later, he leaves south London without a single goal to his name. For a player signed with attacking impact in mind, that statistic tells its own story.

A change of scenery comes quickly. Everton, who finished 13th last season, are betting that Johnson’s pace and direct running can be unlocked in a different environment, in front of a crowd that has long embraced high-energy forwards willing to run, press and chase lost causes.

For Johnson, this is a reset. For Everton, it is a calculated trade: proven output from McNeil sacrificed for a winger they believe can grow into a central attacking figure.

A swap with immediate edge

The timing adds an extra twist. Everton and Palace meet on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season. If the paperwork and medicals go through as expected, both clubs could line up with their new winger facing the team that just let him go.

McNeil, finally in Palace colours after February’s emotional near-miss. Johnson, trying to make Goodison roar and prove that a goalless spell in south London was just a blip.

Two clubs separated by only two league places last season, trading wide men and European ambitions. The next question is simple: who will look back on this swap as the moment their season turned?