So its confirmed then, the league leaders at Xmas are Liverpool driven by a return of the prodigal Luis Suarez that would make biblical tales of redemption look very tame. There’s only 2 points separating the top 5 so it would be foolish to make great claims at this stage. Not so in the Bundesliga where the ” Winter Championship ” is considered to be an important staging post probably because they go into hibernation for a month to save their players energy in order to beat our lot again in the World Cup next summer. Bayern Munich have won the first half and really there’s not much point in the rest of them coming back for the second bit.
In the Premier League, the winter champion is meaningless because they’re all at it again before they’ve even digested the turkey. What’s more, anyone in the top 8 stands a chance of winning the League and anyone in the bottom 11 are in a relegation contest. Only Southampton appear to be out if contention for one or the other and you couldn’t even have said that a couple of weeks ago.
It was only last May that the Premier League resembled its German counterpart with one team winning by a street. What on earth has happened at Man Utd ? Message boards are full of people blaming David Moyes but the real cause of United’s downturn is Saturn and its current transit through Scorpio.
Moyes has the Sun and Moon in Taurus, a sign known for its steady determined qualities. His Everton sides played a classic old fashioned Taurean game based on effort, commitment and strong physicality. Moyes is the most practical of managers and has been great at making the most of a limited budget. Whether these same Taurean skills are what Man Utd need has been the subject of debate all season.
The problems for Moyes began in the summer with Saturn during the transfer window. Saturn was opposite his Sun preventing him from getting any of his transfer targets.
It really didn’t help that the two people United did bring in were both Scorpios and so would be having Saturn troubles of their own, Marouanne Fellaini and Wilfried Zaha.
Zaha has the Sun in Scorpio opposite the Moon so this was always going to be a very difficult year for him. Many have said that the United move was too big a step up having been the big fish in the Crystal Palace pond. With this transit he would have struggled even if he’d stayed in London, and it’s probably better to sit out a Saturn phase on the bench at United than risk injury or other misfortune elsewhere. Zaha will no doubt come good next season once Saturn has moved away.
Fellaini seems to be a fish out of water. He terrorised United’s defence twice in 2012 and looked very strong in the Everton side but United don’t really play the same style. Fellaini’s Sun is near the end of Scorpio so things could get worse before they get better.
Rio Ferdinand is another Scorpio enduring Saturn’s transit. Saturn is Old Father Time and it symbolises the limitations of age. Ferdinand has reached that point in his career where injuries and a loss of pace are starting to catch up with him and a nice rest in the MSL is looking more inviting by the day.
David de Gea is another Scorpio but he’s so far been spared the worst because he also has Jupiter conjunct his Moon.
Saturn’s role in a chart is to deny the person what they want in order to make them focus and work harder. A Saturn transit can be very tough at the time but people often emerge from it with an inner strength that helps them move forward.
We only have to look at the biggest Scorpio name of the lot, Wayne Rooney. He was born with the Sun at the beginning of the sign so Saturn was transitting his Sun for most of last season. There were obviously signs of trouble there, not least in his relationship with ex manager Alex Ferguson.
The transit was still operating throughout the transfer window denying him a move to Chelsea. References were made to Rooney being not in the best physical condition but the striker has responded in the most positive Saturnine fashion. He had a strong pre season training and has got back to his best form. In fact without Rooney this season, United would be way off the pace and the calls for David Moyes head would be much louder.
It’s really not likely that Moyes will lose his job though. United are not the kind of club to sack a manager so soon and also it would be too much of an embarrassment as Moyes was Ferguson’s recommendation and he wasn’t given much help by the board during the transfer window.
Saturn transits are tough times for any manager even Ferguson. The only time in his United career that he had similar transits to Moyes current ones was between 2003 and 2005, a disappointing period when he lost the title to Arsenal’s invincibles and was twice taken to the cleaners by Jose Mourinho, once with Porto and again with title winning Chelsea.
So times are hard for David Moyes but the consolation is that managers seldom actually get sacked under Saturn transits, that seems to be more the province of Neptune, a planet that undermines a manager’s position. When any manager has lost the dressing room, look for the transits of Neptune.
So when will things get easier for Moyes ? It’s difficult to say without knowing his time of birth because this would affect the position of his Moon.
As the transits to the Sun and Mars are past it’s fair to say the worst is over, but with Saturn’s opposition to his Moon still to come, its unlikely that United can be next summer’s champions.