Arsenal are ready to turn their attentions to German international goalkeeper Rene Adler as a cheaper alternative to Stoke City's Asmir Begovic.
Arsene Wenger is looking to bring in an experienced goalkeeper in the summer to give competition to Wjociech Szczesny. Begovic is thought to be at the top of the wish list, with Victor Valdes of Barcelona, Real Madrid's Iker Casillas and Simon Mignolet of Sunderland also being considered, along with Hamburg's Adler.
Stoke signed Jack Butland from Birmingham City in January, which has left the door open for Begovic to make a move to a bigger club at the end of the season.
However, Stoke are likely to demand around £15 million ($23 million) for the in-form goalkeeper, which has led to Wenger considering his options.
Adler has been on the radar of Arsenal for a while, and Wenger has reportedly zeroed in on the Hamburg goalkeeper, who only switched to his current club from Bayer Leverkusen last summer, with a view to a bid when the transfer window opens in July, according to the Daily Mirror.
Adler is expected to come at a much lesser price than Begovic, with Hamburg, who are suffering from financial problems, likely to demand only around £5 million ($7.5 million).
The 28-year-old will be a good addition to the Arsenal squad and will add some much-needed experience to the team's backline while also acting as a mentor to Szczesny. And if he can emulate Arsenal's last German goalkeeper - Jens Lehmann -- then the fans will certainly be quite happy.
Meanwhile, Wenger believes Lukas Podolski can spearhead Arsenal's attack, after the German international forward came on as a substitute and scored a brilliant third goal to put the icing on a brilliant comeback against Norwich at the weekend.
"Podolski was injured when we played at Bayern and won," Wenger said. "After that, we won at Swansea...sometimes you have periods like that and I think he can play as a central striker as well.
"I work a lot with him as a central striker at the moment. He is a quality player and when he comes on you can see that straight away. You don't get 100 caps by luck.
"Honestly he has a great attitude. He never moans, he never has a bad phase, he is always positive."
