I'm not a smart man.  I mean, for years and years, I thought all those VCRs were supposed to blink "12:00."  Who knew?

So maybe this is hardly a surprise, but I just don't get it when it comes to Toronto FC. My little brain just can't get around how matters are being managed at a club with such amazing potential.

Toronto dismissed interim manager Chris Cummins on Tuesday.  Good move? Probably. But my issues are with the bigger picture, about whether anybody could succeed in what looks like a difficult situation.

Initially, back in the spring, the team seemed to rally around this young man and his rather sparse resume. But a few months of watching the team concede late goals, watching it juggle formations, watching a side that didn't seem to have a plan offensively, seeing Nick Garcia continue to start at center back when he was clearly overmatched and, finally, seeing the team totally unravel in the biggest game in club history, well, clearly Cummins wasn’t the guy.

Or was he? Here's why it's hard to know: because I think there's someone else involved with soccer in Canada's most cosmopolitan city that shares plenty of culpability here.  

"Paging Mo Johnston. Mr. Johnston, please report to the nearest Red Patch Boy and explain yourself. Stat!"

Mo Johnston has always been nice to me personally. (Once he even politely explained how something I had written was unfair. Then, like a real gentleman, having made his point, he talked to me about the team and took it all in stride.) He's a fun fellow to be around, and that affable disposition probably has something to do with this Teflon coating he seems to wear.

Because let me tell you, Toronto FC's plan when it comes to personnel is all over the place. And every goofy, willy-nilly and half-baked decision through the years is covered with Johnston's fingerprints.

By my count, 65 players over three years have worn the Toronto shirt. Sixty-five! What, are they handing out professional player passes up there with your 10th punch of a Starbucks card?

Seriously, what says "We're just wingin' it around here!" like having 65 players roll through the door in just three seasons?

Look, starting a team from scratch isn't easy. I understand that. But make a plan and then have the confidence to stick with it.

Beyond the personnel issues, there's just something screwy with the bunch at BMO. I mean, how bad are things when manager John Carver just up and resigns out of the blue? He did so in April, when the team was a respectable 2-2-2. So in comes Cummins, who didn't seem to have the requisite league experience … but, what the heck, let's roll with it and see what happens!

Well, here's what happened, he left with some very interesting things to say. Such as: "They (his family) came out with me when I first came out and unfortunately there was things promised me that I didn’t get at the end of it." That's what he told the Globe and Mail in this piece.

Hmmm. Interesting. What else?

Well, there's this from a piece in The Star, where Cummins talks about his relationship with Johnston:  "I think relationships are always going to be up and down and it's the same with all my staff ... I'm not going to come out here and badmouth people. Did I get support at times? Yes. Did I get it at other times? Probably not. ... I did the best I could have done with the group of players I was given."

Oh, do go on ...

"I think it's a good dressing room. but there were bad apples there. … I went to ( Johnston) with certain concerns ... There's some great players on this team - Amado Guevara, people like that, that I have utmost respect for - but unfortunately, if you let one or two in who are not good characters. Maybe I shouldn't have let them disrupt it as much as they did."

That was from The Star as well.

Here is one of my notes from Toronto's Oct. 10 match against San Jose: If this team can't find anybody better than Chad Barrett to start in such an important match, then maybe they don't deserve to be in the playoffs.

This is a note from the team's next match, against Real Salt Lake:  Again, way too many long balls out of the back! … Why pay Julian de Guzman if you're just going to knock it past him?

I know that not everybody shares my view, but I believe de Guzman will be a great performer in the league with better players around him.

But will the organization get better players? Amado Guevara, Dwayne De Rosario, Sam Cronin and Stefan Frei are terrific building blocks.

Is Johnston the man who can build around them?

I know I have my doubts.