Id be fine with either of those two as assistant manager. Imagine the spanish players we could sign!! 
Ryan Nelsen to coach all whites?
Football tactics are like most things though - they go in cycles.
Playing the ball long and/or wide isn't old-fashioned, it's futuristic.
Re long balls ... Hoof and how Route One can be successful... from Sabotage Times ...
http://www.sabotagetimes.com/football-sport/hoof-how-route-one-can-save-england/
Harry Redknapp anyone?
All this talk about sack Ricki is just a load of blah blah!
He is not going to be sacked....he will finish his contract with NZF in 2014. He will finish his contract with the Nix at the end of next season.
The discussion should be really about his succesors in both roles. Someone suggested that Emblen is being set up for the AW job. Please god no! Last thing we need is another conservative ex centreback schooled in the old fashioned English game. There has to be better options out there. We have a group of young talented footballers who have the skill to play a more possession based, ball on the ground type of game. Hoof ball works when you have the big bangers up front and Brown muscling up in midfield but it won't work with Weemac and co.
More urgent at the moment is the coaching succession plan at the Nix. Because at the moment there does not appear to be one.
So it comes down to getting the best deal out of local and perhaps Australian talent.
My suggestion is both the Nix and NZ Football touch base with the most high-profile coach to have ever come out of Oceania, Antoine Kombouare from New Caledonia who until recently was manager of Paris Saint Germain in the French top flight and has the French Cup, Second Div. title and Europa League experience on his CV.
The Noumea-born Kombouare also had an illustrious playing career as a defender with Nantes, PSG and Aberdeen and scored the goal which knocked Barcelona out in the Champs Lge quarterfinals in '94-'95.
He's recently been linked to the vacant Ghana national team position and to Fulham.
I'm aware this suggestion may seem a bit left-field as he's obviously been used to very high salaries coaching in France and is probably aspiring to coach at a level a bit above the Nix or the third best national team in Oceania.
However, all I'm suggesting is it could prove to be very useful in the future to establish contact and form a relationship with this guy now. Kombouare is only 48, must speak reasonable English after two seasons playing for Aberdeen at the end of his career (maybe with a Scottish accent?) and could well be interested in a return to Oceania where he grew up, at some stage of his coaching career. Coaching the Nix or the All Whites could well prove attractive to him, even if ten years down the road from now...and he could implement some very good things in our game.
Our national team humiliated by New Caledonia ---> bring in a New Caledonian coach. I like it !
Career:
Player: 
1983-1990 Nantes
1990-1991 Toulon
1990-1995 PSG
1995-1996 Sion
1996-1998 Aberdeen
1998-1999 RC Paris
Manager
1999-2003 PSG (CFA) - reserve team
2003-2004 Strasbourg
2005-2009 Valenciennes
2009-2012 PSG
Honours as Player
1993 winner la Coupe de France (PSG)1994 Champion de France (PSG)
1995 Winner la Coupe de France (PSG)
1995 Winner la Coupe de la Ligue (PSG)
1996 Winner la Coupe de Suisse (Sion)
Honours as Coach
2003 Champion de France de CFA (4th div. won by PSG reserve team)
2006 Champion de France de Ligue 2 (Valenciennes)
2006 Coach of the Year Ligue 2 (Valenciennes)
2010 Winner of la Coupe de France (PSG)
2010 Finalist in Trophée des Champions (PSG)
2011 Finalist in la Coupe de France (PSG)
See:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoine_Kombouar%C3%A9
http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/antoine-kombouare/aufeinenblick/trainer_1224.html
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=antoine+kombouare&oq=antoine+kombouare&aq=f&aqi=g1&aql=&gs_l=youtube.3..0.57231.67540.0.73531.17.10.0.7.7.1.457.2835.1j0j5j2j2.10.0...0.0.329YWWHTkr4
Harry Redknapp anyone?
Ooh - triffic man manager - but don't we need someone to implement clever tactics?
"When I joined we were only 4 wins from 8 games. That Ryan impossible to play against on his day, triffic lad in and around the club, you'd have him in your side, just need a word in his ear to go out and enjoy his football."
Nah, Tony Smith from the Christchurch press and unnamed sources from inside the Spurs camp have told me that Nelsen did all the managing there anyway.
Well played sir.
Harry Redknapp anyone?
Perhaps not as left-field as you'd assume, as Harry has coached here before...well, he was assistant manager of Bournemouth when they toured NZ back in 1982 and played our u-19's and local clubs and regional rep. teams....memories...back when tours by British clubs happened every year...
It's amazing back then a team just promoted to the old Third Div. could thrash all and sundry in NZ, including against NZ u-19 5-0 and 6-0, winning 7 of 8 tour games on the 17 day tour.
Current AW's coaches Ricki H. and Brian T. played against Bournemouth for Gisborne and Harry Redknapp made his last appearance as a player when Bournemouth were hit by injuries against a Taranaki XI. Several familiar faces for NZ u-19 (Fred de Jong, Ceri Evans, Colin Tuaa, Mark Cossey, Paul Brydon). Future Chelsea and Liverpool star Nigel Spackman played for Bournemouth.
Harry R. replaced David Webb as Bournemouth manager the following year and held the position for ten seasons. David Webb, scorer of Chelssea's FA Cup- winning goal v Leeds in 1970, went on to coach Chelsea briefly.
Crowds were great for a lower league side with no star names - nearly 13,000 turned out over the whole tour with a high of 5088 v Napier City Rovers.
All Bournemouth '82 NZ tour stats here:
http://www.rsssf.com/tablesb/bournemouth-nz82.html
05/06/1982, New Plymouth, Pukekura Park, 750 TARANAKI XI 2 (Donoghue 2) AFC BOURNEMOUTH 1 (Chris Sulley)
Note: Injuries forced the AFC Bournemouth manager David Webb and trainer Harry Redknapp to take field.