It is hard to fathom what the motivation for Jean Thissen’s decision would be. He takes on the job as national team coach of Togo just over two weeks before the resumption of Africa’s World Cup qualifiers and with the very real prospect of having to do without his best player.

Thissen is the third new coach to take over at the helm of a side who are still in the World Cup race and set out at the end of this month on the final leg of the fight for one of the five berths for the 2010 World Cup finals in South Africa.

The 63-year-old, who is a former Belgian international and has coached in Gabon, Morocco and Tunisia, parachutes in to take charge of Togo’s team after Frenchman Henri Stambouli walked out last year.

But talk of taking on the virtually impossible. ‘Les Eperviers’ (the sparrowhawks) have the most daunting start to their Group A campaign, starting on March 28 against Cameroon on neutral territory in Accra where Togo are forced to play their home matches because of a ban on their own stadium in Lome.

Cameroon are hot favourites as an exciting new generation of talent bursts through their ranks.

To make matters worse, there is the strong possibility that Togo will go into the game without talismanic captain Emmanuel Adebayor.

The newly crowned African Footballer of the Year pulled a hamstring playing for Arsenal in the English premier league just weeks ago and is supposedly sidelined for some time to come. Arsenal with its galaxy of stars is noticeably poorer for his absence, so imagine what a blow the injury is to Togo’s hopes.

Thissen also takes on a job where his employers have unrealistic expectations, believing Togo can qualify for the 2010 finals.

It was nothing short of a minor miracle that Togo qualified for the last World Cup in Germany but their limited player pool and poorly run administration mitigates against it ever happening again.

That they have got this far in the 2010 qualifiers is solely because of the impetus of Adebayor’s return to the team after yet another of his tiffs with authorities.

So why then take on the job? Thissen could see himself as pioneer, keen to work in difficult climes; he could be an eternal optimist or he may just need a job. One thing is sure: He is going to need to be a miracle worker.

Picture: Arsenal's Emmanuel Adebayor reacts after missing a shot on goal against Liverpool in London December 21, 2008. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

Very few people believed the story that Samuel Eto’o was considering a move to Uzbekistan’s Kuruvchi.

All of sudden it turned out to be true with Barcelona’s Cameroon striker speaking at a news conference in the country’s capital. Despite mega money being thrown in his direction, Eto’o will probably not end up there but at least they got him to go out and talk. Even if it was just a publicity stunt, it worked.

San Marino champions Murata also tried to coax Romario out of retirement to play in their Champions League first qualifying round first leg. He turned them down but with former Brazil team mate Aldair already on Murata’s books, they almost managed to convince the striker to pull on the boots again.

Tales of unknown clubs bidding for household names make a refreshing change from what has been a turgid transfer window.

It took AC Milan three months to sign Ronaldinho while Inter Milan are still chasing Chelsea’s Frank Lampard and Liverpool seem to be no closer to taking Gareth Barry from Aston Villa. I haven’t even mentioned Cristiano Ronaldo…

Every day the papers have said there will be crucial developments in the next 48 hours and yet we are still left waiting. Why do close season transfers drag on so much? Should a cut off point of ‘three bids and you’re out’ be introduced?

More radically, should soccer take on America’s draft system? Then Eto’o and Romario really could end up in Uzbekistan and San Marino. 

A disaffected relationship between a coach and his employers would ordinarily lead to a end of that relationship, either through resignation or dismissal.

In Cameroon, however, it is not that simple. A web of entanglement between the state and football means we’ve arrived at the ridiculous situation where the national coach Otto Pfister has been effectively handed divorce papers but continues in his job.

The Cameroon Football Federation recently decided it no longer wants anything to do with the German coach, but they are not able to fire him.

Pfister was employed last November as coach of the team to replace Jules Nyongha, even though the local had successfully qualified Cameroon for the 2008 African Nations Cup.

The decision to hire a new coach, even though the team seemed to be performing well, was taken by both the federation and the country’s sports ministry. But because the sports ministry pays the salary of the coach, the final choice of Pfister was made by government as opposed to the Federation.

The choice of Pfister was not accepted by the Federation, who publicly stated its objection as the coach arrived in Yaoundé for contract discussions with the sports ministry.

In the end, though, political pressure on Federation president Mohamed Iya was such that he dropped his objections, and Pfister went on to take Cameroon to a surprise place in the Nations Cup final, where they lost to Egypt.

Now that the celebrations have fizzled out, and in spite of the Nations Cup achievement, the Federation wants Pfister out. But because they don’t directly employ him, they can’t fire him. So, perhaps for the first time in soccer, they have divorced the coach instead.

Mark Gleeson covers African football for Reuters

PHOTO: Cameroon coach Pfister celebrates a goal against Ghana in the African Nations Cup semi-final in Accra, February 7, 2008. REUTERS/Siphiwe Sibeko