David Wright

Ipswich Town Ipswich Town signed Wright from Wigan in January 2007 on a three-and-a-half-year deal. He made his Town debut in a 1–0 defeat to Sunderland at the Stadium of Light on 13 January, and in only his second appearance for the club, Wright found himself sent off for handling the ball in Ipswich's 3–2 win over local rivals Colchester United. His only goal of the campaign came in the East Anglian derby against his former side Norwich City, the equalising goal in a 1–1 draw on 22 April.

Wright featured regularly for Town in the 2007–08 season, ending the campaign with 43 appearances in all competitions and scoring two goals; against Bristol City in a 6–0 thrashing and against West Bromwich Albion on New Year's Day 2008.

During the 2008–09 season, although Wright was born in Warrington, England, Scotland and former Ipswich Town manager George Burley was considering selecting Wright for the Scotland national team due to his grandparents Scottish ancestry. However, this never came to fruition. Another solid season saw Wright rack up another 36 appearances and score the decisive goal in a 2–1 win against Nottingham Forest on 18 February 2009.

Wright scored the only goal of the game in a match against Derby County on 31 October 2009 to halt manager Roy Keane's winless run of 15 games, in what was the team's first win of the season. Following this, Wright made a further 21 appearances in the 2009–10 season, bringing his total appearance figure for Ipswich to 128 matches.

Crystal Palace Former Scotland manager George Burley signed Wright for his Crystal Palace side on a two-year contract in June 2010. He made his debut for the Eagles on 14 August 2010 as Palace fell to a 1–0 defeat away at Barnsley. Wright made 29 appearances during the 2010–11 season and made a further 25 appearances in his second season.

Wright played just three games for Palace during the 2012–13 season before joining League Two club Gillingham in September 2012, on loan for one month. He made seven appearances during the spell, and although the club attempted to extend his loan, the deal fell through as it was not confirmed before a 17:00 GMT transfer deadline on 22 November 2012. Following this loan spell, Wright did not make any further appearances for Crystal Palace before leaving the club.

Colchester United On 25 January 2013, Wright signed for League One club Colchester United on a free transfer.

After ending his first season with Colchester with 12 League One appearances, and scored his first professional goal in four and a half years in Colchester's 4–2 defeat to Wolverhampton Wanderers at Molineux on 25 March 2014. He signed a new one-year contract with the club on 3 July 2014. After making only three substitute appearances in the 2014–15 season, Wright was released from his Colchester contract by mutual consent on 26 November 2014.

Coaching career Ipswich Town Academy While playing for Colchester United, during the summer of 2013, Wright was appointed Academy coach at nearby Ipswich Town, where he coached players in the under-14, under-15 and under-16 age groups. He continued in his role following his contractual release from Colchester in November 2014.

Maldon & Tiptree He returned to the coaching set-up at Colchester in June 2015, linking up with the club's academy to work under John McGreal. In a dual-coaching role, the move also saw him named as manager of Isthmian League Division One North side Maldon & Tiptree in a development link-up between the two clubs. His role would see him act as a full-time coach with Colchester, while managing Maldon & Tiptree on a part-time basis. Wright said "I'm very excited about the opportunity and I'm really looking forward to it".

Colchester United After taking charge of Maldon & Tiptree for 25 games, resulting in ten league wins, five draws and ten defeats, Wright was appointed assistant manager to Kevin Keen at Colchester United on 21 December 2015 following Tony Humes exit from the club. Wright left the Jammers in 14th position in the table. After Keen left by mutual consent on 26 April 2016, Wright was named as caretaker manager for the penultimate game of the 2015–16 season following Colchester's relegation from League One three days earlier. In his first game in charge, he led the club to a 2–2 draw against Barnsley at Oakwell. After Colchester took the lead in the first-half, two Barnsley goals second-half turned the match in the home side's favour, but an equaliser in the eighth minute of stoppage time from Tom Lapslie rescued a point for Wright and his team. John McGreal was named permanent manager on 4 May ahead of Colchester's final game of the season. Wright was appointed in a new role in May 2016, becoming manager of Colchester's under-18 team.

Norwich City U18/U23 In November 2016, Wright left Colchester to take up the role of under-18s manager at Norwich City. In 2019, he was appointed manager of the club's U23 side.

Milton Keynes Dons On 17 August 2021, Wright joined League One club Milton Keynes Dons as assistant first team coach, working under new manager Liam Manning.

Ipswich Town Women

On 6 January 2026, Wright was appointed caretaker manager of Ipswich Town Women, following the departure of Joe Sheehan. On 24 April 2026, he was appointed to the job on a permanent basis, after guiding the team to three wins in nine games which saw Ipswich rise to 10th place in the WSL2 at the time of his appointment.

Career statistics

Playing statistics

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1997–98 First Division

2000–01 First Division

2001–02 First Division

2002–03 Second Division

2003–04 First Division

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2004–05 League One

Honours Crewe Alexandra 2002–03 Football League Second Division runner-up (level 3)

Wigan Athletic 2004–05 Football League Championship runner-up (level 2)

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