Landon Donovan may not be extending his stay with Everton in the English Premier League,  after all.

That’s what his Everton coach, David Moyes, is saying.

Unless Moyes is engaged in some sort of semantics game here … it looks as if Los Angeles Galaxy fans can expect Donovan back in SoCal before March is over.  On schedule.

That’s not to say this hasn’t gone well. It has gone quite well. To the point that Everton today named Donovan their player of the month for January.

Landon has just the one goal, with Everton, but he has been a fixture on the right side of midfield from the day he arrived. He has brought speed and a sense of danger to the pitch. He has helped Everton on the nice run it is on, one that includes a 2-1 victory over league-leading Chelsea — and only one league defeat (at Liverpool) since Donovan arrived.

Our guess is that Moyes and Everton aren’t prepared to pay Major League Soccer/the Galaxy whatever it would take to keep him through the end of the season. Or, further, they certainly don’t have the wherewithal to pay whatever transfer fee the MLS might ask — if they were looking to keep him on full-time.

Is this bad? I don’t think so.

We have learned that Landon Donovan can play in the Premiership for a competitive side and help make it better. He can succeed in one of the most physical leagues in the world, playing in cold and rain, and earn the respect of some particularly discerning fans.

So, beyond that … is there tons more for Landon to accomplish in England? Everton isn’t going to win the league, it is out of the FA Cup, it won’t qualify for a Champions League berth. It still is in the running in the Europa League, but that’s a sort of runners-up tournament that isn’t particularly significant.

At his age (28, next month) is he going to learn more in England? Would practice sessions there make him better? If he were 21, maybe. But at this stage, he is what he is, and that’s pretty darn good.

So, everyone in England can sigh and wave farewell in a few weeks, and Landon goes home to L.A. and turns it down a bit while getting ready for the MLS season and, more importantly, getting ready for the World Cup in South Africa in June.

He may never have the long European career some silly American fans demanded for him, but he went over, he made a solid team better, the fans loved him … and he went home. If he had any little corner of doubt in his mind that he could hang with those guys, it’s gone now. We’ve seen the tape.

If David Moyes, the man who engineered this whole event, doesn’t see it extending beyond the terms set last December … it’s almost certainly not going to happen. And that’s OK.

If anyone wants to revisit this after the World Cup, and Landon really wants to go and Major League Soccer will let him go for less than a king’s ransom, maybe it happens. And maybe not. Which is no disaster.