A rare cash-free exchange sends two wingers seeking fresh starts as Henry Swain reveals why the Welsh international struggled at Selhurst Park ahead of Monday’s crucial medicals.
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Everton and Crystal Palace have agreed a swap deal that will see Brennan Johnson and Dwight McNeil switch clubs in the summer transfer window.
News emerged at the weekend that a swap deal was on the cards, with there likely to be no exchanging of money in order to get a deal over the line. Instead, an old-school swap deal, allowing Johnson and McNeil to embark on fresh challenges heading into the new season.
Both players are set to sign four-year contracts at their respective new clubs, with the option of a further 12 months. It's a deal that has moved incredibly fast, with medicals now scheduled for Monday.
To get a little more insight on Johnson, we spoke to Roundtable's Crystal Palace representative, Henry Swain. Continue reading to find out why it didn't work out for Johnson at Palace, his strengths and weaknesses, why the Eagles might want to sell, and his thoughts on the impending deal.
Why didn't it work out for Johnson at Palace?
Henry has suggested that there are a combination of reasons as to why it didn't work out for Johnson at Palace, including his loss of confidence during his time at Tottenham.
"I think there’s a combination of things which have led to this decision being made to part ways with Johnson. Off the back of a season as Spurs’ top scorer, he fell out of favour under Thomas Frank and was completely shot for confidence."
Henry also mentions the fact that Johnson joined Palace at the wrong time. With Ismaila Sarr away at AFCON, the Welsh international joined the club with a lot of pressure on his shoulders to instantly perform, while manager Oliver Glasner confirmed he would be leaving the club just days later.
"He couldn’t have joined Palace at a worse time either. The club were bang in the middle of that awful run of form across Christmas and Ismaïla Sarr was away at AFCON with Senegal, so Johnson had to come straight into the side and had immense pressure on his shoulders. It was also a matter of days after his signing that Oliver Glasner came out and confirmed to the players and club that he was going to leave in the Summer. I can’t imagine that was communicated to Johnson when he was signed."
With Johnson having to come to a club and instantly bed into a new system, it was never going to be easy for him. The Palace forward struggled to perform, leading to a sale this summer.
"The demands on him to come in and learn a new system were, in hindsight, unfair, but at the same time he hasn’t had a good performance in the half season he played with us."
What can Johnson bring to Palace on his day?
Johnson isn't a bad player. He struggled at Palace, no doubt, but there's a reason they invested heavily in him, and a reason Tottenham did the same from Nottingham Forest.
Henry mentions the fact that Johnson was being forced to play centrally at Palace, despite his best performances coming out wide.
"We saw at Spurs that his best performances came when he played out wide, which he never got to do with Palace. Under Glasner we played with two ‘wide’ tens, and under Sage these players are even narrower."
Johnson isn't likely to be a narrow player for Everton. We're fine for central attacking players, so Johnson is likely to come into the squad as a winger, which should benefit him.
"He’s a final product player. You don’t want him involved in build up or being asked to beat a man one-on-one, you want him entering the box at the right moment and getting on the end of good service. If he can play solely as that final action finisher I think you’ll see him back to his best, but from what we saw over the last six months his play in the buildup, hold-up play and general contribution to the team was poor."
I mentioned in my previous article on Johnson that you don't want him involved too much. If we've got an attacking right-back who can be more of a creator, and other creative products in the side, Johnson can be that player to regularly attack the box. Get into the area and score goals, we don't need much more from you than that.
Weaknesses
As previously mentioned, confidence is a big thing for Johnson. In reality, we just didn't see a lot from Johnson during his time at Palace.
There might be a host of reasons for this, as I think everyone knows he's better than the player we saw at Selhurst Park. There could be reasons we don't know about, but Henry can only focus on what he saw on the pitch.
"I am certain that had he come in and scored early on he could have kicked on and had a successful season, but the reality is he missed big chances consistently and cost us games at times. When we were struggling against low blocks in the Conference League, we could rely on Sarr, Mateta and Pino to find chances and score. We couldn’t rely on Johnson. I think what shocked Palace fans the most was his overall ability. When we sign someone for £35 million I think expecting a general level of performance which outshines the other players in your squad is completely reasonable."
Why do Palace want rid of Johnson?
Henry admits that signing Palace for £35m in January was a mistake. Palace needed to add depth due to their Europa Conference League campaign, but it was an expensive deal.
"A combination of SCR limiting us in the window and cutting our losses. It doesn’t take a genius to tell you that committing £35 million on Johnson in January was a huge mistake. We needed depth ahead of the latter stages of the Conference League, but we didn’t need to spend so much money, especially considering we opted not to sign McNeil for £20 million later in the window."
Henry believes that Palace knew they'd struggle to recoup close to what they paid for Johnson after his disappointing spell with the club, so getting him off the wage bill while bringing in a replacement makes sense.
"Realistically no one is going to save Palace from the financial issues and buy Johnson, but the wages he’s on have caused huge issues for Palace with UEFA’s SCR rules. Offloading these will mean Palace can free up almost £25 million to use on potential incomings."
Frustration at a straight swap deal
Understandably, Henry admits his frustration around a straight swap deal. With Johnson earning over £100k-a-week, however, it makes sense to offload, and he believes McNeil would be able to contribute the same, if not more, on lower wages.
"Everything we’ve heard suggests this is a straight swap, so that is slightly frustrating. Ultimately, the reality of the finances are unknown, and how this deal impacts Palace’s amortisation of the Johnson fee is not clear. What is known is that Johnson is on significant wages, and was Palace’s second highest earner on over £100k a week. McNeil is on far lower wages, and will certainly be able to contribute as much if not more than the Welshman could."