Matt Holland: George knows the reasons why he had to go. But when he left he took a bit of us with him

I walked into the ground on Friday morning and the manager, George Burley, drove slowly past me and waved. "Where's he going?" I thought to myself. The reception area was a melting pot of rumours that Burley had been sacked and I realised as I made my way through the building towards the dressing room that it was probably true.

It sort of made sense because of our League position and the fact that October is the silly season for managers and clubs parting company but I didn't expect it to happen at Ipswich.

Myself and Tony Mowbray, the assistant manager, were called to the chairman's office and David Sheepshanks confirmed that Burley had indeed been sacked and Mowbray was to take charge until a new manager had been appointed. That was it. Just past 10 o'clock in the morning and "the King is dead, long live the King".

If that seems a little dramatic consider this: Burley had been manager since 1994 and every player at the club was there because of him. He had dragged the club back from the disaster of relegation in the mid-Nineties by developing homegrown youth talent and wedded them to shrewd and normally cheap buys.

His methods and insistence on forging a unified spirit had taken us to play-offs in two consecutive years before the final push at Wembley in 2000 took us back into the Premiership. The plotting, purchasing and players were all his. The qualification for Europe by coming fifth in the Premiership, one of the toughest leagues in the world, was his. And now he was gone.

The poor results in the past 12 months had done for him as Sheepshanks admitted that it was not a knee-jerk reaction. And yet at the start of the season he was still "the best man for the job". Ten games on, admittedly not a particularly successful 10 games, and he is now looking for a job.

Football has always been a cut-throat business but now that clubs are businesses with turnovers of millions and the price of failure could be extinction, the knives are that much sharper. The bigger the numbers the greater the pressure, particularly when those numbers are lined up on the debit side as they are now.

Not only are managers expected to know formations, team shape and skills, they have to be financially astute as they often have to make decisions involving those millions, psychologically aware as they snarl and cajole players into the best mental state for matches, and publicists as every utterance is dissected in the football-hungry media.

And if the players don't perform on the pitch, the manager gets it in the neck, or worse his P45. It is easy to say that is the territory of the job and that is why they earn a substantial wage but it is clearly a very difficult, stressful, frustrating and at times rewarding job.

I would not want to do it but for the past few years I am glad that Burley did because his diligence allied to my desire made me the player I am now. Since 1997 we have developed an excellent working relationship and also a friendly one as he has pushed me to work on skills, shooting, tackling or whatever he had spotted that needed improvement to make me a better footballer.

And there was, still is, always something. Under his tutelage I went from playing in the Second Division with Bournemouth to captaining a First Division club, a Premiership club and then the Holy Grail, the World Cup with the Republic of Ireland.

The sweat was mine but the astute coaching and judgement was his. Personally I owe him so much as do many of the players at the club and there was a definite air of disappointment at the news. Training was a little quieter than usual and I think part of this was a feeling that Burley's sacking was a direct consequence of our poor performances on the pitch and must surely reflect badly on us. We are professionals who have not performed and he has been the fall guy. However, there was also a mood of getting on with business and trying to win yesterday's game.

This was helped by Mowbray's speech to the players on the training pitch, very matter of fact, very straight and very positive. "What's done is done and does not alter our league position," type of stuff. In fact I phoned Burley later in the day and he had a similar attitude. Disappointed obviously, but also determined to get back into the game and take on another challenge. It is an example of his passion for Ipswich, though, a club he played for as well as managed, that he still encouraged me about the next few games and that the lads could pull out the needed victories.

Yesterday's victory was achieved with an element of luck, but in sport you need that. I was surprised at how nervous the players were before we went out, but we were lifted by the crowd, who were marvellous.

Burley had left without bitterness, just pragmatic acceptance and dignity. We know the price of failure, just like the players know that they should shoulder some of the responsibility. He made mistakes, but he, like us, was learning on the job. Together we were thrust into the toughest league and into Europe and his success in getting us there also contributed to his downfall. He had raised expectations but the fans, players and chairman should thank him.

He was a superb and successful manager for the club. But, as in life, nothing in sport lasts forever.

Matt Holland, the Ipswich Town captain, was talking to Iain Fletcher