Arsenal have reportedly made an offer of €20m for Bayer Leverkusen’s goalkeeper, Bernd Leno, with the Germans holding out for €22m.

That’s according to an ‘exclusive’ from Alfredo Pedula, who also claims that the Germans want bonuses added to any fee.

Pedula is seen as ‘Tier 2’ in Italy but ‘Tier 1’ for Napoli news according to Reddit users who rank sources of gossip. To compare, David Ornstein is classed as ‘Tier 1’ on the forum when it comes to Arsenal.

Napoli had been the favourites to sign Leno with the player himself reportedly keen on a move to Serie A. But Pedula reports that Napoli’s president, Aurelio De Laurentiis, is not willing to pay this sort of figure even though they wish to sign a new goalkeeper within the next week.

Napoli are expected to ‘contact’ Bayer again today [Wednesday]. Corriere dello Sport (via Calcio Napoli 1926) claimed the 26-year-old ‘clearly expressed’ his desire to join the Italian side. He’s reportedly now ‘only waiting for Napoli’, despite knowing of interest from Arsenal.

Just a few days ago, Kike Marin claimed that Leno is Arsenal’s number one number one target. It was also claimed that the player would make a decision ‘in the next few days’.

That was six days ago.

David Ospina and Petr Cech’s contracts both expire in 2019, so there’s no way Arsenal can ignore the problem unless they want to start the 2019/20 season with a couple of youth goalkeepers.

They’ve already released Alex Crean, Hugo Keta and Ryan Huddart while Manchester United’s Dean Henderson looks set to renew with Jose Mourinho’s side despite being linked with a free transfer to Arsenal this summer. Emiliano Martinez, meanwhile, did little during his season-long loan to indicate he is ready for the step-up.