After seven weeks of transfer talks, David Bell became Norwich's seventh signing of the 2008/9 pre-season when they paid Luton £750,000 for the Irish B international midfielder on 23rd July 2008

David began his career at Rushden & Diamonds where he made 122 appearances, scoring 10 goals. During his time with Rushden, he had trials with Middlesbrough.

He joined Luton in 2006 and made 70 appearances for them over two seasons although the latter part of the 2007/8 season was spent on loan to Leicester City for whom he made 6 appearances and he was expected to make a move to the Walker Stadium until Leicester were relegated.

In December2008, it was eported that cash-strapped Norwich were preparing a swap deal that would see Bell in Coventry in return for Elliott Ward, as the Canaries were short of defensive options following Dejan Stefanovic's injury and John Kennedy's loan deal coming to an end. Bell finally signed for Coventry on 30th January 2009 for a fee reported to be between £150,000 and £500,000. New Canaries manager Bryan Gunn agreed to sell the 25-year-old to City's Coca-Cola Championship rivals for an undisclosed fee after his short spell in Norfolk, citing homesickness as one of the main reasons: “David hasn't had the opportunity to show us his quality on his preferred side of the pitch. He approached me last week and asked about the situation, saying he wanted to move back closer to home with his young family. When Coventry made their offer, David was clear he wanted to go. David has been very professional and we wish him well in his future career.” Bell made his debut for Coventry in their 2-1 defeat to Derby on 31st January 2009.

Bell was not in the line-up for Coventry when they lost to Doncaster on 21st April 2012 and were relegated to League One.

Released by Coventry on 19th July 2013, he immediately signed for Notts County.

On 24th January 2013, Bell surpirsingly quit Notts County to sign for non-league Kings Lynn. Bell had made 13 appearances this season for Notts County but realised that injuries were limiting his ability to play professionally. He was hoping to develop a coaching career alongside playing. Lynn manager Gary Setchell had played with Bell at Rushden & Diamonds.

Bell left Kings Lynn in the summer of 2015, signing for Stamford before moving to Northern League Division One South side Spalding United on 29th September 2015.

In late October 2016, Bell joined Corby as Assistant Manager to Gary Mills who had joined the Steelmen from Kings Lynn where he had been assistant. Bell became Corby manager in May 2017 after Mills left the club. but he was sacked in September 2017.