Alan Myers reveals what he knows about Dwight McNeil and Brennan Johnson swap deal at Everton

Everton have been linked with a shock swap deal involving Brennan Johnson and Dwight McNeil.

Many Evertonians are slightly concerned about their team's relative lack of transfer investment this summer.

Christian Norgaard has now completed his move from Arsenal, but aside from the Dane, Hayden Hackney remains Everton's only other new face given Merlin Rohl and Tyrique George being on loan previously.

David Moyes will no doubt be desperate to make a number of further additions to his squad before the 1 September deadline, and bolstering his options out wide is a priority.

In order to accomplish that, however, he may need to sacrifice some further fringe players in order to get incoming deals done.

Or in the case of McNeil, Everton could be set to use the 26-year-old as a bargaining chip towards the capture of Crystal Palace's Johnson.

Why Alan Myers reveal will give Everton Brennan Johnson hope

As claimed via his Patreon page on Friday, reporter Alan Nixon has stated that an agreement could be close that would see McNeil head to Selhurst Park and Johnson move in the opposite direction to Merseyside.

Johnson only signed for Palace in January this year, joining from Tottenham in a £35million deal.

That could complicate things slightly regarding how much compensation Everton may need to pay on top of McNeil being part of a deal, as it's surely unlikely Palace would accept a straight swap with no additional funds involved.

However, writing to his X account on Friday evening, Everton reporter Alan Myers has responded to a question being put to him querying whether there is indeed any truth in these swap deal rumours.

"I was told this was a discussion, not sure how true or if it’s happening tbh (to be honest) but I wouldn’t rule it out," Myers said.

So, how well did Johnson fare in the Premier League last season, and is there enough evidence to suggest he'd be an upgrade over McNeil?

Why Johnson is a high-risk, high-reward Everton gamble worth taking

Last season was not a good year for Johnson, and in fact, it was perhaps the most disappointing of his senior career to date.

After scoring four goals in 22 appearances for Tottenham during the first half of term, he would provide just two assists in 26 games for Crystal Palace, as well as failing to find the net.

But, in similar fashion to McNeil who also endured a rough 2025-26, his form in the couple of seasons prior to last proved he's got the ability to be a star player at top-flight level.

The 45-cap Wales international scored 18 goals in 51 games for Spurs in 2024-25, following on from his five goals and 10 assists in 34 appearances in 2023-24 respectively.

Even going back to his time with Nottingham Forest, the versatile attacking midfielder scored eight and chipped in with three assists in 38 Premier League outings in 2022-23.

Meanwhile, he also scored 19 goals and registered 10 assists in 53 games for Forest in 2021-22 when they were a Championship side.

So, Johnson has put up some fantastic numbers and campaigns in recent times, but you're only as good as your most recent season, and 2025-26 wasn't great at all for him.

But as a swap deal for a fringe first-teamer in McNeil, the potential to get that production back at Hill Dickinson Stadium should be enough for Toffees chiefs to view this as a worthwhile gamble to take.