Six years is a long time for a football manager...especially one that has no silver ware. Managers come and go, its not like the sky is going to fall if Ricki goes. Since the start of the last A-League season the following A-League clubs have changed managers. Victory(twice), Sydney(twice), Brisbane, Adelaide, Heart(Jets???).....
Another factor for Ricki going is AW commitments. The A-League is at such a level now where you want your coach 100% focused on the team 100% of the time. Next November we have two huge WC playoff games. NZF will probably organise a few warmup games before. It will be bad enough losing a whole bunch of players but do we want our head coach out of loop during at the beginning of the season.