It's a shame to see these words coming out of the mouth of a player who had a strong impact on our fortunes during the latter stages of the season, a player who sang "Play Up Pompey" at Wigan after our survival had been confirmed. It wouldn't suprise me if the real reason he didn't want to come here is down to money as his wage demands are said to be huge and we're not prepared to meet them. As good a player as D'Alessandro is, why blow a major part of our transfer budget on one player?
That's if he did say that at all as after all, this interview came from a foreign magazine and they have been known to misquote players in the past or go the full monty and just make up a load of nonsense in an attempt to sell stories. Dejan Stefanovic and Sander Westerveld are the two most recent examples of this so I wouldn't completely rule out a permananet move for Andres yet but you'd have to think that Benfica, who are reportedly admirers of D'Alessandro, would be the favourites to sign him now, especially with the player being quoted "I do not know anything of the interest of Benfica, but if this is true that would be magic."
It would be a disappointment to "lose" a talented player who endeared himself to the fans and some may accuse Pompey of lacking ambition for not snapping him up quickly despite his massive wage demands, although they may be so high because of a certain greedy agent and it wouldn't suprise me if an agent was involved in trying to stir something up a la Willie McKay. The bottom line however is that we don't know the whole story and we're just going to have to be patient to find out where Andres does end up.
But if he doesn't sign, which seems likely, then it's not the end of the world and there are plenty of other talented midfielders we could sign. Harry has already said he won't be watching much of the World Cup as he'll be chasing transfer targets all the time, with one having already been spoken to on Wednesday so maybe we can expect a couple of new faces to arrive at Pompey during the World Cup.
But for now, all we can do is speculate.