Alan Shearer says he celebrated the news that Mike Ashley planned to sell Newcastle United.
Ashley, the club's billionaire owner, formally put the club on the market last week.
Shearer, Newcastle's all-time leading goalscorer, has been a vocal critic of Ashley since leaving the club for a second time after a brief spell as caretaker manager in 2009.
And the Match of the Day pundit has put the boot into Ashley – and former Crystal Palace chairman Simon Jordan – in his column in The Sun.
"I could not help but celebrate the news last week that Mike Ashley officially wants out of Newcastle United," wrote Shearer. "He has held Newcastle back for too long."
Jordan, meanwhile, made some astonishing claims about United – and the club's fans – on Sky Sports last week.
"Ashley has gone in there and he was never going to be accepted because he was a southerner," said Jordan, who bought Palace in 2000 and ran it for a decade before the club went into administration.
Shearer, however, has questioned that statement in his latest column.
"Simon Jordan spouted absolute nonsense that Ashley was never going to be accepted at the club because he was a southerner," he wrote.
"What? It didn’t seem to hold back the affection the fans at St James’s Park had for Rob Lee or Les Ferdinand.
"The reason Ashley has been disliked during his 10-year tenure is because he has not invested enough to realise the club’s potential."
Shearer added: "Trying to change the name of the ground, plus his poor treatment of certain managers – which he admitted in a recent Sky interview – have not helped either."