Crystal Palace and Everton have agreed a straight player exchange, with Brennan Johnson and Dwight McNeil switching clubs. No transfer fee will change hands between the two sides, with both happy to swap the wingers without any money involved in the transaction.
The clubs granted both players permission to travel for medicals, which are taking place on Monday. Johnson and McNeil are set to sign four-year contracts, each of which will carry a club option to extend by a further 12 months.
McNeil, 26, came agonisingly close to joining Palace during the January transfer window, only for the move to collapse on deadline day after the required paperwork was not submitted to the Premier League in time. His partner, Megan Sharpley, made her feelings clear in a post on Instagram. "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," she wrote.
McNeil joined Everton from Burnley for £20m in July 2022, scoring 15 times in 128 games in all competitions. He entered the final year of his contract at the Hill Dickinson Stadium, and his role under manager David Moyes diminished over the course of the past season, with the winger starting just 14 matches and registering only one assist.
Johnson, 25, arrived at Palace in a £35m deal in January — a club-record signing under Oliver Glasner at the time — having made his name at Tottenham, where he scored 27 goals in 107 appearances. That tally included the winning strike in the UEFA Europa League final against Manchester United in 2025. His time at Selhurst Park, however, did not reach those heights. Across 26 appearances in all competitions last term, he failed to score a single goal, contributing just one assist, with only 13 of those outings coming as starts.
Despite those struggles, Glasner was effusive in his praise when Johnson first signed. "He's such a great player. He has everything you need as an attacking player. Incredible skills," the former Palace boss said. "I feel sometimes he puts himself under too much pressure so that he doesn't play with this freedom that maybe he should have. He just should enjoy playing football because he's such a great player."
Johnson earns £130,000 per week at Palace, and his departure frees up a significant amount of room on the south London club's wage bill. Palace, now managed by Pierre Sage following Glasner's confirmation of his end-of-season exit, had maintained their interest in McNeil throughout the managerial change.
Everton finished 13th in the Premier League last season, with Palace two places below them in the table. Palace will play in the Europa League in 2026-27 after their Conference League success, a competition in which Johnson played 18 times but featured only as an unused substitute in the 1-0 final victory over Rayo Vallecano. The two clubs are scheduled to meet on the opening weekend of the new Premier League season, facing each other at Hill Dickinson Stadium on Saturday, 22 August.
Reporting: The Guardian, ESPN, Evening Standard, GiveMeSport, Mirror, TeamTalk, BBC Sport.