Dwight McNeil's Partner SLAMS Crystal Palace: "From Everything to Radio Silence"

"Shouldn't Be Acceptable": Everton Star's Girlfriend Leaps to His Aid Following Move Collapse

Though the January transfer window of 2026 was significantly quieter on a Premier League level than previous iterations, there was still no shortage of action to keep your eye on while you worked.

Jean-Philippe Mateta was denied his move to AC Milan due to injury concerns, while Crystal Palace at one point were showing interest in every conceivable centre back in a European league.

However, undoubtedly the strangest sequence of the day came when Palace announced that they were pursuing Everton winger Dwight McNiel and were happy to lodge a fee of £20 million to acquire the 26-year-old.

🚨CRYSTAL PALACE CHASE THE SIGNATURE OF DWIGHT MCNEIL.

🦅The Eagles are needing to boost their options ahead of the deadline, with their focus switching to Merseyside.

📲Full Story in bio#CrystalPalace #CPFC #Everton #Mcneil #Deadlineday pic.twitter.com/oyZVSR6BBv

— Football Park (@FP_CentreCircle) February 2, 2026

Updates kept coming throughout the day, and as the deadline approached, it seemed increasingly likely the Englishman was set for a move to Selhurst Park. However, just minutes before the deadline, Palace went on radio silence, and the move collapsed.

Denied a high-value move to the reigning FA Cup and Community Shield holders, McNeil was understandably upset, but not nearly as outraged as girlfriend Megan Sharpley, who took to social media in defence of her partner and in offence of the way footballers are treated in the modern-day transfer market.

Palace “Promised” Move?

Late on Monday night, Megan took to Instagram to vent her feelings about her spouse’s recently collapsed transfer and pulled no punches in a verbal attack on the London club.

Dwight Mcneil’s GF via Instagram #EFC pic.twitter.com/g7J9jjvvOe

— JDBEFC_ (@Jburtonefc) February 3, 2026

“Tonight, and the last 48 hours, have broken my heart to see how the football world you love so much can be so cruel to you.”

To have something promised to you, to have been dragged along an emotional rollercoaster, and to be toyed with until the final minute. To have four and a half years of your life promised to you, travelling, medicals, agreements made … promises made. To have prepared to move your entire life, our lives, hundreds of miles away in the space of a few hours.”

“For it to be torn away from you at the last second, with absolutely no explanation. Going from everything to radio silence, no phone call, no communication and be left, broken-hearted, with nothing but confusion has more hurt than I can say.”

Granted, this statement is not from McNeil’s own point of view, but it does underline the range of emotions, feelings, agreements, and negotiations a player must go through in order to get a deal done, and to see all of that hard work undone by a club that does not communicate its decision would be a significant blow.

Sharpley has raised an important insight into player welfare - the transfer window morphs our favourite stars from humans into commodities, and as soon as clubs start treating them like objects as opposed to human beings, feelings are hurt, and anyone on the wrong side of a poor decision can see their reputation burnt to the ground.

Sharpley Exposes All

However, Sharpley’s statement did not end at criticism of Crystal Palace - she also revealed a remarkable insight into the lives of not just footballers but professional athletes around the globe.

Speaking of the time, effort, and endless problems it took for McNeil to become a high-ranking pro footballer, Sharpley wrote on an Instagram story: “You’ve sacrificed a lot, and most people don’t have much of an idea of the difficult hardships you’ve suffered and dealt with in your personal life.”

“The world doesn’t seem to accept that someone as fortunate as you is allowed to suffer hardships and feel sad, but you’re a human. No matter about money or the success you’ve worked so hard to achieve, you are allowed to feel.”

Dwight McNeil will not be leaving Everton this window due to the relevant paperwork for his proposed move to Crystal Palace not being completed on time.

McNeil completed his medical at Palace, who submitted a deal sheet before Monday's 7pm transfer deadline but the south London… pic.twitter.com/e7MjW0Ppui

— The Athletic | Football (@TheAthleticFC) February 2, 2026

Athletes of any genre are more often than not seen as superhuman, unneeding of help and headstrong in the extreme. However, this image is far from the truth, and every so often, we are given a very public example that these deified figures feel exactly the same as we do.

In football, mental health has become a much more serious talking point in recent years, and one would think that the FA, English clubs, and various personnel around the country had been briefed on how to operate within both their own and the player’s comfort zone in a bid to maintain healthy minds.

And yet somehow, Crystal Palace, who had already experienced a truly awful month even before being linked with McNiel, saw fit to leave the player stranded mid-move, failing to communicate their intentions not to follow through, and left a regular Premier League star in limbo.

It indicates that the club were not concerned with player welfare at all – granted, he was not their player at the time, and so technically, he was not their responsibility. However, their responsibility was to conduct themselves and the deal in a timely, open, informative manner, which they failed to do on all three fronts.

Sharpley finished her statement off, posing, “I only hope that there is more done in the future to protect people from situations like what I’ve witnessed tonight. Football is brutal, and yes, it is the nature of the beast, but messing with human beings’ feelings and emotions shouldn’t be acceptable.”