9 hours ago
Brooke Norton-Cuffy on life after Arsenal, impressing Vieira and England ambitions
For anyone Arsenal affiliated, meeting a club legend can be daunting. Even more so when they are your new boss. For Brooke Norton-Cuffy, who left his boyhood club Arsenal for Genoa last summer, that connection helped when Patrick Vieira was appointed head coach mid-season.
'My first conversation with him was in a team meeting,' Norton-Cuffy tells The Athletic. 'We had a new manager and everyone knew who it was, but he's come in, shaking everyone's hands. I hadn't met him before but he stopped at me and he's gone, 'You alright, Brooke? I've heard a lot of good things about you'.'
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It may have only been casual small talk, but the 21-year-old had been seen, and that was important.
The right-back, who is part of the England Under-21 team who play their European Championship semi-final against the Netherlands tonight, struggled with injuries in the first half of the 2024-25 season.
He joined the Serie A club for £3.5million but was dealing with muscle injuries when Vieira, who won three Premier League titles with Arsenal as well as the World Cup and European Championship with France, was appointed in November to replace former AC Milan striker Alberto Gilardino.
Genoa sat a point above the Serie A relegation places in 17th, but Vieira guided them to safety with a 13th-placed finish. Such was their upturn, Vieira ended the season by being linked to the head coach roles at Inter and Roma, but signed a two-year deal to stay at the start of this month.
Norton-Cuffy did not nail down a starting spot until the back-end of the season due to his injuries, but his relationship with Vieira still grew.
'There have been times where I wasn't playing or had injuries and he's helped me a lot,' the right-back says. 'He's made sure that I kept my head and improve even when I wasn't playing.
'I asked to have a conversation with him. With some managers, you can't but he was more than happy to have a chat. He told me what I need to work on, to stay patient, that he thinks I'm a good player and I'll get my chance. He kept to that and when I did get my chance, I took it.'
Playing in one of the most physically demanding positions on the pitch, a key part of Norton-Cuffy's preparation when he wasn't playing came from late night runs around Genoa.
He started running in lockdown, over London's Tower Bridge, and continued on loan at Lincoln City.
Now on the Italian coastline, he smiles when the change in scenery is brought up, and says: 'I run down the Corso Italia by the Ligurian Sea (between Italy, France and Corsica), so I get sunny views of the beach.
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'I needed to do something to keep me going when I wasn't playing this season. If I don't play, we run after the game, but some players would have done 12km of high-speed running.
'(The running) ramped up in Lincoln because I needed to get up to the intensity of League One. In the first week or two, I felt like I was off it. Losing second balls, not getting to the ball quick enough, so I was going on hill sprints and runs in the town. Once I started doing that I felt it allowed me to get up to the level, be myself and just give me that little edge.
'That's the little two per cent on the pitch where it's the 89th minute and you're tired but I'm not because I was out running for the last two months.'
A full-back by trade, much of Norton-Cuffy's senior development saw him used as wing-back because of his running power both with and without the ball.
He has not boxed himself into just that position, however, as he has played on both sides of the pitch and sometimes as an out-and-out winger — as was the case for England Under-21s in their 3-1 quarter-final win over Spain.
With Serie A dominated by teams who deploy wing-backs, his decision to join Genoa seemed logical.
'It was always about my development,' he says. 'We weighed up the options of where I'm gonna go and improve, and which club suits me and my beliefs. That was important as I was going to be away from home.'
Norton-Cuffy had seen childhood friend Samuel Iling-Junior move to Italy when he joined Juventus from Chelsea in 2020. Iling-Junior is now an Aston Villa player, but did return to Italy on loan with Bologna last season, and Norton-Cuffy is making sure to get help with acclimatising.
'My Italian is getting there,' he says. 'I struggled a bit at the start, but I have weekly lessons and speak with my team-mates in Italian as much as possible. Sam Illing Jr, who's at the Euros too, is a good friend of mine. He was in Italy before with Juventus and Bologna, so I'll call him and we'll just speak in Italian for a bit to try and brush up my skills.'
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The defender amassed more than 100 senior appearances by the time he left England — but none in an Arsenal shirt.
After his half-season with Lincoln in 2022, he had loans in the Championship with Rotherham United, Coventry City and Millwall.
The Rotherham and Coventry loans came in each half of the 2022-23 season. Coventry helped him hit a different level of intensity and he started the Championship play-off final, where they lost against Luton Town on penalties.
Next was a season with Millwall, where he became a fans' favourite as a wing-back, scoring twice and providing four assists.
That first loan at Lincoln is the one that stands out though, as he says: 'I went from playing under-23s football to going on loan to League One when I had just turned 18. At that time at Arsenal that didn't really happen much.
'It was cold too. I asked for a jumper and the kitman told me, 'You're not at Arsenal anymore'. There were times when it was hailing, or it was one-degree weather and I was there in a T-shirt — that toughened me up.'
While gaining all this experience at club level, Norton-Cuffy had always been on the radar for England's youth teams. He has played for the Under-16s, U18s, U19s, U20s and was first brought up to the U21s by Lee Carsley in 2023. A year earlier he was part of the squad that won the Under-19s Euros in Slovakia.
The final against Israel that year was played in the Stadion Antona Malatinskeho — where their 3-1 quarter-final win over Spain last weekend took place, and they even used the same changing room, with six players from that squad in this summer's tournament.
This time round in Slovakia, Norton-Cuffy has come on as a substitute in three of England's four games. Carsley admitted after the Germany defeat in the group stage that Norton-Cuffy was 'unlucky not to have got more game-time', but he has impressed with each appearance.
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He gave England natural width and impetus that had been lacking from right-back in the group games. Against Spain he played well on the right wing, with his ability to use his left foot as well as his right a helpful way to spark attacks into life.
In a mixed-zone interview after the Spain win, Norton-Cuffy said that Carsley has made him feel fully involved throughout this camp even if he has yet not started. 'He speaks a lot about previous groups and certain players who are stars now who didn't play,' said Norton-Cuffy.
'I wasn't involved in a few of the earlier campaigns but he took the time to give me a ring and say, 'Keep going and you'll get your chance'. Towards the end of the tournament, you need everyone.'
If the rest of the Euros is anything to go by, Norton-Cuffy will continue to make an impression, just as he has on Vieira.
