Premier League Player Swap: McNeil and Johnson Trade Explained

A rare, old‑fashioned player swap is taking shape in the Premier League – and it is dragging modern financial regulations right into the spotlight.

Dwight McNeil is set to leave Everton for Crystal Palace, with Brennan Johnson heading the other way to Goodison Park. On the surface, it feels simple: a winger for a forward, two clubs solving two problems in one move. In reality, it is anything but simple.

One deal, two transfers

The Premier League will not treat this as a straight swap. On the books, McNeil-to-Palace and Johnson-to-Everton are two entirely separate transfers, each with its own price, each feeding directly into the clubs’ squad cost ratio (SCR) calculations.

That is where it gets delicate.

Palace paid £35m for Johnson. For this trade to be “neutral” in their accounts, his valuation in the McNeil deal would need to sit at roughly £30m. That is the benchmark figure that keeps their SCR in balance.

Drop below that, and the numbers start to bite.

When McNeil’s proposed move to Selhurst Park collapsed in February, he was priced at £20m. If this new agreement is a true like‑for‑like swap and both players are booked at £20m, Palace are suddenly staring at a £10m loss on Johnson. On paper, that matters as much as anything that happens on the pitch.

Fair market value under the microscope

Every swap has to clear another hurdle as well: the Premier League’s fair market value (FMV) checks.

Brought in back in 2021 alongside rules on associated party transactions (APTs), FMV is designed to “provide a robust mechanism to safeguard the financial stability, integrity and competitive balance” of the league. In plain terms, it stops clubs from cooking the books with inflated or artificially low transfer fees.

So McNeil and Johnson will not just be judged by sporting directors and managers. External valuation firms will be called in to weigh up their age, recent performances and comparable deals across the market. Their findings will help decide whether the figures attached to this swap genuinely reflect reality.

Only then will the Premier League deliver its verdict on whether the valuations – and therefore the transfers – pass FMV scrutiny.

If both clubs get the green light, Everton and Palace will have pulled off something increasingly rare in the modern game: a straight trade that works for the squads, and for the spreadsheets.