Bartomeu has got rid of his last shield. Now the president fate lies in the hands of the coach and the team. The agonising sacking will actually do very little. It's a gesture, playing to the galleries, because the problems remain. We all know that Zubi is not the only guilty one for the bedlam that has happened in the last four years in Barcelona. Bartomeu is focused on the anticipated elections that could even be announced during the full board meeting that has been announced for Wednesday evening.

Lluís Mascaró

Zubizarreta has not been a good sporting director. We have never tired of criticising his lack of a firm project, his transfer errors and his abysmal planning. But the buck does not stop with him. The president who signed him, Sandro Rosell, and the president who sacked him, Bartomeu, are just as, if not more, culpable than Zubizarreta, who has been characterised as a rogue who knows nothing about football. It's not as bad as that. He has done a bad job, a very bad job, but his bosses have done a worse one.

Zubizarreta's declarations after the debacle in Anoeta have been the excuse to expediate his sacking. Bartomeu had already made it very clear that he was planning to cut the cord. First he got rid of the director general, Antoni Rossich and now it's the turn of the sporting director. The executive board Rosell built has been blown to smithereens, with one objective: save face and avoid the anticipated elections. This strategy is going to help to calm the atmosphere at a troubled Barcelona.

And Luis Enrique should be careful too. Another slip up on Sunday at the Camp Nou against Atletico could become the tombstone of the Asturian coach, who has been entangled in an absurd ego war with the mighty Messi. A battle which the coach cannot win. Only the results can save him. Just like the president. But before Bartomeu falls, Luis Enrique will fall.