Is Landon Donovan secretly hoping negotiations between MLS and the players union breaks down this week?

Jack Rodwell was well-served Sunday by Landon Donovan, so he served up LD to the fans after notching Everton’s fifth against Hull City (AP Photo).

That’s one possible interpretation of Donovan’s claim Sunday in the wake of his supposed Goodison Park finale that there’s still a “chance” he could remain on Merseyside longer after scoring Everton’s fourth and creating their fifth in just about 20 minutes of action in the 5-1 victory Sunday over Hull City.

His second goal for Everton was shrewdly taken, Donovan smacking an adroitly placed and well-controlled shot into the Hull net with a calculated maturity that underlined his all business approach to his English stay. And Donovan’s unselfishness in creating the fifth showed just why he is going to be missed by Everton players and fans alike.

If, of course, he returns to the Galaxy as Coach Bruce Arena Friday insisted he would as scheduled.

Donovan’s goal and assist may have been unnecessary to the Everton cause Sunday anyway, with the game already well in hand by the time he made his entrance, but it illustrated his level of achievement in Europe this year in comparison with the Galaxy’s other on-loan player, one David Beckham.

Beckham made yet another brief appearance for AC Milan Sunday who squandered the opportunity to close the gap atop Serie A on rival AC Milan.

Is it any wonder Donovan is being outrageously linked with the likes of Chelsea while Beckham is yet again deemed extraneous to the England cause at the World Cup this summer.

A Chelsea forward line of Donovan, Didier Drogba and Nicolas Anelka may be the stuff of tabloid newspaper fantasies, but somehow it’s not as easy to reject the idea that Donovan’s time in MLS is drawing to a close one way or another, despite what Arena would like to believe.