Former Barca midfielder Xavi was approached to take over from Ernesto Valverde but spurned the chance, feeling he was not yet ready for the task.
Quique Setien has struggled so far to be taken seriously and there's no doubt that he was be jettisoned quickly if Xavi was serious about wanting to take up the post.
Xavi played over 700 times for Barca and won eight LaLiga titles and four Champions Leagues while also picking up three successive international trophies with the all-powerful Spain team that won the Euros in 2008 and 2012 either sid eof the 2010 World Cup.
Xavi now appears ready to take the helm at Camp Nou, and has even set out his criteria for taking the job and picked out what would be his first transfer targets.
"I am clear that I want to return to Barcelona, I am very excited," Xavi said in an interview with La Vanguardia.
"Now that I have seen myself coaching I think I can bring things to the players.
"But I made it clear to them that I saw myself in a project that started from zero and in which the decision-making was mine."
On the decision to turn down the Barcelona job previously, Xavi insisted he made the right decision and hinted at some dressing room unrest for the reason.
"I have no problem: I don't hide, I don't take it back," Xavi said of his decision.
"I would like to work together with people in whom I have confidence, with whom there is loyalty and who are very valid people.
"There can't be anyone toxic around the dressing room."
Xavi picked out Lionel Messi, Gerard Pique and Marc-Andre Ter Stegen as the best players in the world in their positions while pointing to midfielder Frenkie De Jong and Arthur as the players the club could count on in years to come.
It was the names of potential transfer targets, though, that will attract most attention as he picked out a possible return of Neymar or moves for Borussia Dortmund's Jadon Sancho or Serge Gnabry of Bayern Munich.
"I don't know if Neymar would fit in due to the social issue, but in football terms I have no doubts it would be a spectacular signing," Xavi said.
"They don't need many new players: maybe Jadon Sancho, Serge Gnabry..."
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