How many league goals did Sutton score in 13 games that season? I'll give you a clue, it was the same amount Paul McKinnon scored for the club. Had that been Ashley Ward/Kevin Davies/Chris Brown/insert your own choice of dud striker here* the fans would have been all over them (and not in a good way!)
Dropping an out of form/unfit player (which is what Sutty was at that point) is a manager's lot. Newell and Shearer was actually a decent partnership for us. And yeah, I'm not surprised Sutton wasn't happy about it - I wouldn't expect him to be.
Selling a player is what 'actually' split up the SAS, the player in question being Shearer.