Everton and Crystal Palace Trade Wingers: McNeil Joins Palace, Johnson to Everton

Everton and Crystal Palace have traded wide men and, in the process, handed the new Premier League season an early storyline.

Dwight McNeil is finally a Crystal Palace player. Brennan Johnson is Everton’s new hope out wide. Same position, very different journeys.

A Deal With History Behind It

On paper it is a straight swap. In reality, it has been two years in the making for one of them.

McNeil, 26, has agreed a deal at Selhurst Park until 2030, a move that almost happened back in February. Palace thought they had him then, lining up a loan-to-buy agreement that would have turned into a £20m permanent transfer this summer. The medical was done. The player was ready. The clock was not.

Paperwork delays killed the move in the final hours, leaving McNeil in limbo and prompting his partner, Megan Sharpley, to accuse Palace on social media of “toying” with his mental health. It was an unusually raw glimpse into the human cost of a failed transfer.

Now the same club has come back and completed the job. No late scramble. No missing forms. Just a long contract and a fresh start at a team that has grown used to winning things.

McNeil leaves Everton having joined from Burnley for £20m in July 2022 and delivering 15 goals and 19 assists in 128 appearances in all competitions. Reliable, hard-working, and productive, he became a key outlet in difficult seasons at Goodison Park.

Johnson’s Second Chance in England

For Johnson, this is already a career of big moves and big expectations.

The Wales winger joined Tottenham Hotspur from Nottingham Forest in 2023 for a fee in excess of £45m, then wrote his name into their history by scoring the winning goal in last May’s Europa League final. That should have been the launchpad.

Instead, by January he was on the move again, this time to Palace for £35m. The numbers underlined the faith in his potential. The output did not. Johnson made 26 appearances in all competitions for the Eagles but failed to score.

Now he lands at Everton on a four-year contract, his third Premier League club in as many years, with 45 Wales caps already behind him and a point to prove.

Speaking to Everton’s in-house channel, Johnson said he “immediately wanted to come and be part” of the club once he heard of their interest. The pull, he explained, came from “the manager, the players, the direction the team is going in”.

“You can see this is a club that wants to go in the right direction, and I'm a player who wants to go in that direction too, so it feels like a really good match,” he said.

Ambition on Both Sides

Everton finished 13th in the Premier League last season, sliding down the table after a poor run at the end of the campaign. The mood around the club has been one of frustration at treading water, but Johnson has stepped into it talking about ceilings, not floors.

He believes Everton will push to “do everything to get back into European competition” and insists “Everton has the ambition to win trophies - and I believe we can do it.”

Those are bold words for a side that has spent recent years glancing nervously over its shoulder. They also hint at how the club has sold the project to him: not survival, but resurgence.

At Palace, McNeil walks into a very different environment from the one he almost joined in February. The Eagles have turned themselves into a cup team with a cutting edge, lifting the FA Cup, Community Shield and Europa Conference League across the last two seasons.

That kind of silverware changes a dressing room. It also changes the appeal of a move.

“The lads have had some great success over the last two seasons. It's something that I want to be a part of, so I'm really looking forward to getting started,” McNeil said.

Palace chairman Steve Parish called him “a player with proven ability in the Premier League”, a line that sums up why the club kept coming back for him. They know exactly what they are buying: end product, work rate, and experience at a high level.

An Opening-Day Subplot

The fixture list has a sense of humour. Everton and Crystal Palace will meet at Hill Dickinson Stadium on 22 August, the opening weekend of the Premier League campaign.

McNeil against his old club. Johnson against the side that never saw the best of him. Two wingers, two fresh contracts, and one immediate test of who got the better of this deal.

For both clubs, it feels like more than a simple swap. It is a bet on fit, on timing, and on the idea that the right environment can turn potential or consistency into something greater.

We will find out soon enough whose gamble pays off.