Brennan Johnson has responded to criticism from former footballers Jamie O'Hara and Gabriel Agbonlahor regarding his recent transfer to Everton. The forward joined Everton from Crystal Palace in a swap deal that saw Dwight McNeil move in the opposite direction.
Johnson's tenure at Crystal Palace was brief, having only arrived from Tottenham in January. Following the confirmation of the transfer on Tuesday, O'Hara and Agbonlahor discussed the move on talkSPORT.
"I like Dwight McNeil," O'Hara stated. "Brennan Johnson has been a myth for a few seasons. He didn't do it at Spurs. He hides in games."
Agbonlahor added, "You look at their output last season, It's a bit like 'you give us him and we'll give you him!'"
As the pair laughed, O'Hara made a further jab, commenting, "We'll give you crap, we'll give you crap back!"
Johnson countered the remarks via Instagram, posting, "Won more than both of these put together." This claim references his trophy cabinet, which includes two major trophies compared to one combined between O'Hara and Agbonlahor. O'Hara won the League Cup with Tottenham in the 2007-08 season, while Agbonlahor did not win any senior trophies in his career. Johnson, however, scored the winning goal in the Europa League final during the 2024-25 season for Tottenham and secured the Europa Conference League with Crystal Palace last season.
O'Hara later defended his comments on X, formerly Twitter, stating that the discussion on talkSPORT focused on the players' statistics from the previous season, which he described as "crap," rather than labeling the players themselves as bad. He added that he is a fan of McNeil and acknowledged Johnson possesses all the attributes, but agreed his recent season was poor.
Agbonlahor, appearing on talkSPORT again the following morning, directed blame for the "crap for crap" comment towards O'Hara. He apologized to Johnson for any outburst, explaining that laughter followed O'Hara's remark. Agbonlahor suggested O'Hara's comments were out of order, stating, "You can't say 'crp for crp'. I thought Jamie was out of order looking back at that now."