For David Sheepshanks, his departure for Arsenal after Ipswich’s extraordinary fifth-place Premier League finish was one of those moments that demonstrated the difficult economics of football outside the elite.
He told Football Presse, “Oh, very. Richard's another wonderful man, homegrown. Should have mentioned earlier, glad you asked about him. He now works for Man City. I mean, he's been there as a goalkeeping coach for many years.
“I can't ever blame an individual for leaving. His agent was a nightmare. I mean, we got on okay, but when we got promoted, we had to persuade his agent for him to stay, and he did for the first season.
“But the second season, when we'd finished fifth and we were in Europe, we begged Richard to stay really, but his agent wanted him to go to Arsenal and he'd lined it up.
“And I mean, you can't deny, as I said earlier, you know, about Kieran, you can't deny a player to improve themselves.”
The timing, however, left Ipswich with a problem. They had lost one of the most important members of a side that had gone from the Championship to fifth in the Premier League, and finding a replacement proved far more difficult than expected.
“It was right in the middle of the summer and close to this new season and we had to then find a goalkeeper and we'd found Mart Poom, who was at Derby, Estonian international, very good keeper.
“And then just the week before the season, he got an injury in his wrist and we couldn't sign him. And we had to sign, I say we had to, we decided to sign an Italian guy called Matteo Sereni.
“And he was a very good goalkeeper recommended by Sven-Goran Eriksson and Tord Grip. And George went to see him and liked him and we signed him.
“But he was a big, big character in every way. Didn't fit the culture of the club really.”
For Sheepshanks, what happened next remains one of the great what-ifs of his time at Portman Road. Ipswich finished fifth in 2000-01 and entered the following campaign with European football ahead of them. Instead, they were relegated from the Premier League.
“Looking back on it, I mean, I always would say, and it's not to blame Richard, but if Richard had stayed that season, I don't think we'd have been relegated.
“Whereas we had, you know, we had this guy Sereni and we had Andy Marshall who joined us from Norwich and they chopped and changed as goalkeeper and the defence was never the same when Richard had gone.
“So I mean, I'm paying him a compliment really. He was a fantastic goalkeeper, a wonderful guy.”
Wright’s own career took him to Arsenal and then elsewhere in the Premier League, while he also became an England international. Sheepshanks remembers travelling to watch his former goalkeeper make his international debut, although it was not quite the occasion he had hoped for.
“I remember flying out to watch him because I was on the FA again by then. And I flew out in — was it summer '02 or autumn '03 — '02 to watch him make his debut for England against Malta, and he had a nightmare.
“Anyway, yeah, you know, I'm Ipswich — I'm steeped Ipswich through and through, and, you know, anybody who's been with the club and part of the club, I'll support.”
For Sheepshanks, that loyalty extends beyond results, transfers and the passage of time. Wright remains part of the Ipswich story: a homegrown goalkeeper who helped the club reach the Premier League, played in Europe and reached England before moving on to Arsenal.
His later career has taken him into coaching at Manchester City, but Sheepshanks' strongest memory is of the goalkeeper Ipswich had developed themselves — and the hole that proved so difficult to fill when he finally left.
The key material comes directly from Sheepshanks’ answer, particularly his explanation of Wright staying after promotion, the Arsenal move, the failed Mart Poom signing, Sereni and Marshall, and his belief that Wright’s absence contributed to relegation.