Merijn van Willigen

Senior Lecturer in Sports Coaching and Physical Education; PE PhD Candidate; Hockey Coach; Husband and Father to Ethan and Amy. Views are my own.

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

parents of #teenage new drivers, please be very careful before you take a telematics policy with @AdmiralUK - LittleBox service awful!
4 missed appointments - charged us!; Indian Call centres - no help; discount terminated; now want £600 for cancelling - #notfitforyoungpeople!

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@MarinaPurkiss Could not agree more - if this was some political genius I’d understand it. But Rees-Mogg may well be the most underwhelming politician of them all.

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

The continuous platforming of rejected and discredited Tory MPs in the #britishmedia is astonishing. Rees-Mogg in #TheGuardian; Truss in #theindependent; Johnson everywhere - can we please move on?! #zombiepoliticians

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

Oh dear @PodSaveAmerica rolling out multi-millionaire celebrities; aligning with the Cheneys; and ‘I’m not Trump, I’m not Biden” was a good strategy to connect with ‘normal’ people?!

I’m gutted but wow - talk about reasons why

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@LBC invites a Russian professor on to commentate on the American elections. Professor prefers Trump and claims claims Russia Ukraine war is a civil war @AndrewMarr9 does not challenge 🤯🤯🤯

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@SkySportsF1 @MBrundleF1 🤫 on @LandoNorris jumping the lights? And getting 5 sec penalty in #Austria and #Miami… for overtaking? And make sure don’t mention @LandoNorris being childish (Max was ‘lucky’?!)
Why is it important to a broadcaster who wins a title?! 🇬🇧

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@Jamesasr89 To just say ‘EH has no plan’ ignore all these external factors. Of course they have a plan - it may be limited or seem unambitious to some, but they’re in an environment where traditional team sports and the way they are supported is under pressure and radical change is risky

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@Jamesasr89 Clubs and brands need income from small market so whack prices up - becomes more elitist.

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

Wonder whether @o2 may be the worse in the UK for customer service. Guaranteed order delivery today - nothing. Then 20 minutes of account verification to chat with someone who seems to only be able to read off a screen 🤯🤯🤯

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

5) "None of this can detract from what the individual athletes achieve, from the beauty of competition and expression of talent. Nobody should be denied these high-performance benefits. But the Team GB project gives us an inadvertent lens, of riots at home and medals abroad"

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

1) "The massive uplift in @TeamGB Olympic success corresponds directly with a simultaneous selling-off of playing fields, the lancing of school sport funding, the well-documented neglect of open public facilities, loss of open space in cities."

https://t.co/pDqJ0lzU16

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

4) "Worst of all London gave us Boris Johnson as Downing Street-bound large projects man, all empty boosterism and big Britain chat. It gave us David Cameron unknowingly predicting his own failure."

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@TomLatchem @MikeFulwood @GBHockey @london_olympics @Paris2024 It may be a much smaller game but the budgets and support for the GB international hockey programme are pretty substantial.
You are right btw on the difference between the two teams. GB would not have won in a month of Sundays

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

Respect and admiration for the individual @GBHockey players, but the decline of the women’s programme since #Rio gold has been stark.
It may be time for some new ideas at @GBHockey. @london_olympics enabled generational change, perhaps @Paris2024 will do same 🤞

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@MikeFulwood @GBHockey @london_olympics @Paris2024 In the entire 2nd half GB created 1 shooting opportunity. Howard looped it at the near post … that was it.
And this was not a Dutch side playing well.
Germans put Dutch under pressure and made them very nervous - what was the GB plan… hope the medal would come to them?

[Merijn van Willigen @Merijn273]

@MikeFulwood @GBHockey @london_olympics @Paris2024 Really?! GB had 2 shots on target! They sat (really) deep and defended. Then lost possession within 2 or 3 passes. Even if the plan was to play on break Dutch were faster 🤷🏽‍♂️ What was the plan?