Everton FC correspondent Joe Thomas considers the breakdown of Dwight McNeil’s move to Crystal Palace and the poignant concerns raised by Megan Sharpley
13:22, 03 Feb 2026Updated 13:36, 03 Feb 2026
Dwight McNeil partakes in a lap of appreciation with partner Megan Sharpley after the Premier League match between Everton FC and Sheffield United at Goodison Park on May 11, 2024. Photo by James Gill – Danehouse/Getty Images
Football is often known as the ‘beautiful game’ but it can be a cruel one too. That often manifests in ways most of us know all too well – those last-minute goals, those controversial decisions, how the bounce of a ball can be the difference between elation and devastation.
Those feelings mean something, which is why football captivates us. But for all that our moods may be dictated too heavily by the fortunes of the team we love, we always have an escape. It is just a game, after all, even if it often feels like more.
It is more than a game for those whose livelihoods depend on it. And while footballers, managers and others at the top end of the industry are lavishly paid for their exploits, their privilege comes with immense pressure, the toll of which we rarely see.
It is hard to know what truly goes on behind the walls of dressing rooms and training grounds. Players are protected from the outside world, their real feelings obscured behind a smokescreen of varnished social media posts, media training and carefully curated club content.
It doesn’t mean they don’t have them, though. Football supporters are often accused of forgetting that too easily and, particularly online, lines of decency are crossed too often.
Those in power, with influence, are guilty of it as well, however.
The extent to which that is the case with Crystal Palace and Dwight McNeil is not fully clear. So far we have, in essence, heard two sides of a story that involves three parties. As a starting point, they make for troubling reading.
The statement released by McNeil’s partner was heartbreaking to read. Megan Sharpley laid bare the emotions at play and the human toll and cost of a broken transfer with eloquence that, given it was compiled amid the immediate aftermath of what has clearly been a devastating moment for the couple, is breathtaking.
She writes of broken promises, mental health being “toyed” with and a complete and utter breakdown in communication – “radio silence” – just when their lives are about to change.
It is clear the couple were keen on a move to Selhurst Park and it appears that, as one would expect, Crystal Palace did all they could to sell the dream of that transfer to them.
Everton, it would appear – and again it is to be expected given the promise of a significant fee for a player who is on the periphery of David Moyes’ first team – did everything they could to facilitate a deal they had little time to react to.
My understanding is that the club feels this was a move that collapsed due to issues at the Palace end and that club chiefs, like McNeil and Sharpley, have concerns about a drop-off in communication at the vital moments of Monday night.
That leaves Palace, whose position is, as yet, unclear – though I have reached out to the club in the hope of understanding how they view last night and whether they wish to address any of the concerns raised about their role in the deal falling through and, perhaps more pertinently, their handling of the situation once it may have become clear McNeil would not be wearing red and blue at the weekend.
Until we do – if we do – then there will remain some limits as to how far the criticism can fairly go. But given Sharpley’s comments are THE biggest story of the post-transfer window maelstrom and the issue most people in the game are talking about, it has been unedifying to see Palace’s social media accounts busy celebrating the arrival of Jorgen Strand Larsen, a deal they did pull off, while the rest of the world is keen for their thoughts on the move that did not succeed.
Those concerns are only heightened by the fiasco surrounding the proposed sale of Marc Guehi to Liverpool in the summer transfer window – another deal that collapsed, seemingly on Palace’s terms – after medicals had been completed with a family preparing to uproot.
Footballers are paid staggering sums of money in comparison to most of those who love the sport and the transfer windows are part of the game that is their livelihood. Even if they should know to expect and be prepared for the chicanery and machinations of last-minute deals that drive headlines and TV segments and social media engagement, captivating billions around the world, it does not make that part of their careers easy to deal with.
McNeil’s case is just a snapshot of the industry – I remember following the deadline day move of one excited teenager set for his first taste of senior football only for him to get to a service station more than 100 miles from home and be told to turn around because his club had found someone else they thought was better for them. There was no time to find an alternative move. That is cruel.
Clubs do have a duty of care that sometimes appears to get lost in the chaos of the transfer window. Supporters are often, rightly, urged to be kinder.
That message can go both ways – though, at Everton, McNeil will find a support network as good as any to help him deal with the disappointment and confusion of Monday night.