Long ago, Toronto FC fell into the bad gambler’s conundrum.

Losers from the start, they began pushing in chips, trying to win back their initial stake. When they ran out of money (owing to salary cap and designated player restrictions), they began hopping from table to table.

This club’s greatest enemy has always been a lack of stability and clear vision. When things go wrong — and things are always going wrong — they begin signing new players willy-nilly.

Just about every other league on the planet operates on the opposite schedule of MLS, running from late-summer to late-spring.

Since MLS teams rarely buy players outright, they’re forced to wait until the end of everyone else’s season to make changes with out-of-contract pros or on loan deals. They can only begin tinkering with their lineup once their own schedule is well under way. They are forever swapping out parts while the car is still moving.

This isn’t working, and never will. So carry on.

Over the last two weeks, Toronto signed four new players.

The biggest name-value splash came on Thursday with the arrival of Israeli international Tal Ben-Haim, a once substantial defender at Bolton who’s been caroming around the Premier League like a billiard ball for the last six years. Like many of the new additions on the roster and in management, Ben-Haim is a former teammate of rookie boss Ryan Nelsen.

There are two ways to look at this trend.

Bright side? Nelsen is going after people he knows have quality after a great deal of up-close viewing.

Bitter side? The only people he can convince to board this train wreck are pals who owe him a solid.

“Tal Ben Haim has been one of the top defenders in the EPL for nearly a decade,” team president Kevin Payne said hyperbolically in a statement.

There is no world in which that’s true. Ben Haim has performed at the top levels. He has never been a “top” EPL player. He’s best remembered for blowing another hole in the hull of ill-fated Chelsea manager and his own former national team coach, Avram Grant, by torpedoing him in the press.

Ben Haim appeared in only five games this year for the EPL’s DNQ team, Queens Park Rangers. Rub that ‘long season’ excuse off the board before we start.

He’s not a top player. He’s a jobbing pro in need of a fresh start and a paycheque. Fair enough. Then just say that.

Clearly, the team needs the help. On Tuesday, they were once again having an on-field nap in the late going against San Jose. Up 1-0 at the break, Toronto undid the screws during the second half, giving up two goals and the game.

They’re on a fairly impressive run of futility. Losing is one thing. They plumbed uncharted ocean floors on the losing front last year. But losing like this? This takes some art.

In six of their last seven league games, Toronto FC has given up a goal that cost them a result within the last 10 minutes.

It started out frustrating, with three wins turned to draws. Nelsen seemed combative after each of those flubs.

The speed wobble is getting more pronounced. Opponent goals in the 89th, 86th and 81st minute, respectively, have turned draws to losses in the last three fixtures.

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If we round up, they’re on pace to win four league games this year. Four.

The quite reasonable sense of alarm is beginning to spread. It’s become Nelsen’s turn to emit the strangled war cry of every other manager in team history.

“There’s going to be changes,” he said after the ‘check engine’ light came on again in California. “Players are coming in, hardened guys who know how to win.”

“Hardened,” in this case, being an honorific byword for ‘old’.

Before the season began, Payne and Nelsen laid out their vision — a younger club, a fitter, faster club. Ten games in, that’s already going out the window.

“(Ben Haim) is exactly the sort of veteran defender we need,” Payne said Thursday.

Of the four newest arrivals, two are in their 30s — Ben Haim (31) and Scottish defender Steven Caldwell (32).

Obviously, Nelsen and Payne want level heads on the backline, where it’s all chickens tripping into axes once the clock begins winding down.

But — the addition of promising Argentine Matias Laba aside — this doesn’t look like building any more.

This is taking a completed house, swapping out bum bricks one at a time, then hoping nothing collapses. This is not the fault of Nelsen and Payne, not quite yet. The current mess is the result of a club ill conceived from the very start, and then never conceived ever again.

It’s hard to know whom to blame. There are too many candidates — from Mo Johnston right on down to the disastrous oversight of Aron Winter.

Judging on the body of work of eight straight failing coaches, it’s even harder to figure out how it ever gets any better.