IF you have ever watched Peter Pan, you will be familiar with the Lost Boys.Little babies who fell out of their prams and were carted off to Neverland, where they live in limbo.GettyJack Grealish faces an uncertain time ahead of the Word Cup[/caption]GettyMan Utd striker Marcus Rashford was on loan at Aston Villa in 2024-25 and his future is unclear, although Newcastle are interested[/caption]PAChelsea chose not to buy Man Utd loanee Jadon Sancho permanently[/caption]There is a growing number of Premier League footballers finding themselves in a similar position as the spiralling wages syndrome of recent years starts to claim its first victims.Led by Jack Grealish, players like Raheem Sterling, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford are now without roots and swinging in the wind, without a place to really call home.Grealish is currently trying to plot a way out of Manchester City having been told his services are no longer required.Effectively shoved out of his pushchair by boss Pep Guardiola and told to find somewhere else to live.At present, one of England’s most naturally gifted footballers is caught in Neverland.Italian champions Napoli have recognised there is a gem of a player to be had, even if he is surplus to requirements at the Etihad.To be fair, it doesn’t take a genius to work out that Grealish is a decent player, just down on his luck and caught in a tricky situation with a boss who doesn’t recognise his talents.Yet the problem is the approximate £270,000-per-week wages that he trousers as an accessory to the £100million he commanded when signing from Aston Villa in 2021.BEST ONLINE CASINOS – TOP SITES IN THE UKBack then the British record transfer fee looked to be the catalyst for one of the last great football mavericks to ascend new heights and become a superstar with the character to match.It’s now all just fizzling out in a sad demise. Guardiola can claim how much he loves ‘Jack’ all he likes. But there is only one real love for top-level players — and that is to see their names on the team sheet each week.One minute off the bench in the last game of the season sums it up for the Brummie bad lad everyone adores. It’s time to go.But with two years left on his contract, that’s roughly £28m in his bin.We hear all that old guff about it’s not about money, it’s about football, but why should Grealish pay the price for the fact that Guardiola sold him a dream four years ago but couldn’t make it come true?So now there is an impasse, and it’s not the first time it’s happened in the blue part of Manchester.City signed Wayne Bridge from Chelsea in 2009. Picking up around £60,000 a week back then was a decent whack for a player, though not in Grealish’s league, even accounting for inflation.The move went t**s up and for the next four years full-back Bridge turned up for work, trained and did his bit but was sent on loan to West Ham, Sunderland and Brighton before finally moving to Championship side Reading.He played barely 40 games for City overall but took his full pay cheque every month. It cost the club around £13m in pay — or just over £3m a game. Numbers associated with top footballers since then have gone fully cosmic.Winger Sterling was signed by Chelsea’s new owners Todd Boehly and Behdad Eghbali in 2022. Ironically, from Manchester City.He wasn’t going to turn down the £300,000 a week being thrust in his hands by the naive Americans.Shutterstock EditorialRaheem Sterling struggled on loan at Arsenal from Chelsea[/caption]Sterling is now a lost soul. He spent last season sitting on the bench on loan at Arsenal.He is back now and as part of the infamous ‘bomb squad’ of Z-listers under coach Enzo Maresca, needs to get out to play.But those wages will now just get in the way. For another two years. Good luck finding a Premier League club willing to shell out £15m a year for a forward who scored one goal last season.Ditto for striker Rashford, who will soon report back to Manchester United from his loan spell at Aston Villa.And for his Red Devils club-mate Sancho — a Champions League finalist in 2024 who Chelsea paid £5m to get off their hands after a year on loan with them.If no compromises can be found, that’s four full-blown England internationals stuck in Limboland come the start of the Premier League season on August 16.They’ll be able to pay their mortgages — but what a waste for the game as a whole.LAK OF LOGICSOUTHAMPTON chairman Dragan Solak claims VAR cost former manager Russell Martin his job.Which doesn’t really make sense.The Serbian told BBC Radio Solent that some of the baffling decisions that went against his team last winter robbed them of eight points.He said: “I’m not saying we would stay in the league, but we would have had a much more competitive run and Russell would definitely still be leading the team.”But if the decisions by VAR were the issue, then it can’t have been the fault of Martin.So why didn’t Southampton’s top man recognise that and stick by his coach?Saints have had four different full-time managers since 2022.Just saying . . . PARussell Martin was axed by Southampton but is Ranges’ new boss[/caption]EMPTY THREATTHE Club World Cup is at least trying new things.Introducing individual player walk-ons and scrubbing out-of-date traditions, such as crowds in stadiums, are notable innovations.But best of all is the ‘most threatening player’ caption which appeared in the corner of my TV screen during Real Madrid’s limp 1-1 draw with Saudi minnows Al-Hilal on Wednesday.I assume it’s meant in terms of attacking players putting pressure on the opposition goal. Of which there wasn’t much in this poor excuse for a game.However, it did make me wonder what fun we could have had with such an analytic tool back in the days of Roy Keane and Duncan Ferguson.STICKIN’ BOOT INTHE new Premier League fixtures are out, yet two of its biggest teams are still playing competitive games — at the Club World Cup.And when next season finishes we’ll roll straight into a World Cup, having seen nine Prem teams compete in expanded European competitions throughout the winter.It’s final, depressing proof that football is 24/7, 365 days a year and now the backdrop to everyday life, every day.