Arsenal Transfer News: Atletico Madrid Reportedly Rival Gunners for Bernd Leno

Arsenal will reportedly face competition from Atletico Madrid should they try to sign Bayer Leverkusen goalkeeper Bernd Leno this summer.

The Gunners remain favourites to acquire Leno, but Atleti are ready to enter the negotiations if they can't keep first-choice Jan Oblak, per German publication Kicker (h/t TalkSport.com).

Leno has been heavily linked with Arsenal recently, with Mark Irwin of The Sun reporting earlier this month the north London club is planning a bid worth £25 million to beat Napoli to the stopper.

Irwin also noted Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger would rely on Head of Recruitment Sven Mislintat, formerly of Borussia Dortmund, to ease negotiations with Bundesliga side Leverkusen.

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Mislintat's presence may give the Gunners the edge in the race to sign a player also reportedly wanted by Liverpool and Inter Milan, per TransferMarketWeb's Claudio Colla.

Atletico joining this queue of suitors would make Mislintat's task tougher still. Ironically, Los Rojiblancos entering the race for Leno may be prompted by Arsenal's own interest in Oblak.

Earlier this month, Spanish source AS (h/t Warren Haughton of The Sun) named Oblak as the Gunners' top target, despite a price tag of £88 million. Oblak offered some encouragement to interested teams by saying he's not sure he will still be an Atletico player next season, per the London Evening Standard's James Benge.

Signing Leno may be an easier deal for the Gunners, particularly in terms of price and competition. Not only would the Germany international keeper cost significantly less, Benge noted how some of Europe's biggest clubs, including Paris Saint-Germain and Real Madrid, are keen on Oblak.

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PSG are ready to pay Oblak's £88 million release clause, according to RMC (h/t AS).

Arsenal's chances of convincing Leno to move to the Emirates Stadium would be buoyed if the club is participating in the UEFA Champions League next season. The chances of the Gunners being involved are slim, though, since they are sixth in the Premier League and 13 points adrift of the top four.

Winning the UEFA Europa League would grant Arsenal access to Europe's top tournament. However, Arsenal face a tricky last-eight tie against CSKA Moscow, while Oblak and Atletico are considered by many favourites to win the competition.

Whether it's Leno or Oblak, Wenger and Arsenal's need for a new goalkeeper is obvious. First choice Petr Cech has been accident prone this season, as Squawka Football showed:

Cech, now 35, was recently ranked behind Stoke's Jack Butland—whose club sits in the relegation zone—in a study on the performance of Premier League goalkeepers carried out by the CIES Football Observatory, per Football.London's Tashan Deniran-Alleyne.

Cech's deterioration, along with Leno's appealing price tag, makes a move for the 26-year-old one of the best Arsenal could make to solve longstanding defensive vulnerabilities this summer.