Bayern sign 'new Neuer'... but the German is not ready to give up the No.1 shirt

Reports of the demise of Manuel Neuer have been greatly exaggerated in the past, not least in the last few years.

There were those who, quite justifiably, declared Neuer to be over the hill this time last year. After a year on the treatment table, a disastrous World Cup in which he arguably shouldn't have played and an unprecedented dip in form in autumn 2018, the Bayern Munich and Germany goalkeeper looked finished.

Yet Neuer would not be Neuer if he had rolled over and accepted his fate. Instead, the 33-year-old has come roaring back into world class form this season, and once again appears light-years ahead of his Bundesliga colleagues.

We should treat with caution, then, the suggestion that he is soon to make way for a successor in Schalke goalkeeper Alexander Nubel.

A lanky, 23-year-old goalkeeping talent who has made a name for himself in Gelsenkirchen, Nubel has long been hailed as the 'next Manuel Neuer'.

His destiny seemed sealed when it was announced last week that, like Neuer before him, he is to leave Schalke for Bayern at the end of this season. Nubel has officially joined the dark side. All he needs to do now is kill off his own master.

Unfortunately for the Schalke stopper, Neuer has no intention whatsoever of being killed off.

The Bayern captain one has spent much of the last two years vocally defending his national team spot from the challenge of Barcelona goalkeeper Marc-Andre ter Stegen. He is not about to shuffle off the Bayern stage without kicking up a similarly almighty fuss.

Speaking to the media in Doha this week, Neuer quickly slapped down rumours that he and Nubel could be forced into a job share.

'I am a protagonist and I always want to play… (Nubel) is a good goalkeeper, but we have good goalkeepers already,' sniffed the 33-year-old.

Even in the most mundane of mixed-zones, nobody does haughty quite like Neuer. On this occasion, the Bayern goalkeeper was sitting in an enormous, throne-like chair of red upholstery and golden trim. If the setting was coincidental, Neuer made damned sure he exploited it, sending barb after royal barb in Nubel's direction.

He questioned whether he would have made a similar move himself at Nubel's age, and that the new signing was 'irrelevant' to his own ongoing contract negotiations.

He heaped praise on current number two Sven Ulreich, who has covered him with consummate professionalism in the last few years, and subtly criticised sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic for allowing the idea of the job share to leak to the press.

When it was suggested to him that former Bayern keeper Oliver Kahn, who assumed his new responsibilities as a board member this week, could mediate between him and Nubel, Neuer pointed out that Kahn himself had hardly been gracious when Jens Lehmann replaced him in the national team goal back in 2006.

It was a fair point. World class goalkeepers don't simply move over, and the overriding message to Nubel was clear: stay in your lane.

Yet Kahn's arrival among the Bayern hierarchy may well cause some concern in the Neuer camp, if only for the broader trends to which it points.

The legendary keeper is set to take over from Karl-Heinz Rummenigge as club chairman in 2022. In the meantime, he is to ease himself in and support Salihamidzic in squad-building. Kahn will ultimately be the man who builds the new Bayern Munich.

As a former goalkeeper himself, he is unlikely to make the same mistake the club made when he retired back in 2008. As unassailable as Neuer is now in the Bayern goal, Kahn had no natural successor, and the club meandered between veterans like Hans Joerg Butt and novices like Thomas Kraft for several years.

It was only when Neuer arrived in 2011 that Bayern finally regained their status among Europe's elite. This time around, they want a world class successor to be primed and ready. That is the logic behind the Nubel transfer.

But while Neuer will have to make way for Nubel eventually, he will be determined to do so on his own terms.

In the national team, Ter Stegen is already good enough to topple him. But at Bayern, Neuer is confident that he will remain the number one for the time being.

Nubel is undoubtedly gifted, but he is not yet on the same level as his idol. As his recent red card against Eintracht Frankfurt showed, he lacks Neuer's precision when charging out from between the posts. After a dip in form this season, he also needs to prove his consistency at the highest level.

The youngster has wrenched the number one jersey from an established Bundesliga goalkeeper once before, usurping Ralf Faehrmann at Schalke last season. But Faehrmann is not Manuel Neuer.

On Tuesday, Kahn told reporters that Nubel was fully aware that he would initially have to take a backseat role and learn from Neuer. There is even some talk that Bayern may loan him out for the first year of his contract.

If that is true, it may be a year or two yet before we can talk with any seriousness of the demise of Manuel Neuer.