Brooke Norton-Cuffy to Hull from Genoa: How loans at Lincoln, Rotherham, Coventry and Millwall got him to the top
With Brooke Norton-Cuffy making a Transfer Deadline Day move to Hull from Genoa, Adam Bate speaks to the England Under-21 international's former coaches at Lincoln and Rotherham to find out why playing early was so important for his development...
Tuesday 1 September 2026 22:49, UK
There is a story about Brooke Norton-Cuffy's time as a teenager on loan at Lincoln City under Michael Appleton that highlights his maturity. “It is one that Michael and I still speak about,” Rich O’Donnell, then Lincoln’s assistant coach, tells Sky Sports.
It involved John Marquis, a big, strong centre-forward with vast experience in English football's lower leagues and a dominant figure in any dressing room. Given that he was over a decade older than the young Norton-Cuffy, keeping quiet was the easy option.
"We had taken John on loan from Portsmouth to Lincoln from January until the end of the season. In an analysis meeting after a game, John, who is quite a big character, was vocal, discussing things that we have to defend better and how we should not concede.
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"Brooke, as an 18-year-old lad, just said, 'I agree John and what you are saying is right. However, if you had scored the two opportunities you had, it would not matter about us defending.' It was non-confrontational, just a guy speaking about football and how it is."
Norton-Cuffy has taken an unusual route from Arsenal's academy. That spell at Lincoln was the first of four domestic loan moves that also took in time at Rotherham United, Coventry City and Millwall before making the big switch to Serie A side Genoa.
"He has done really well in Italy, loving it there and learning the language," says O'Donnell. But that dressing-room tale from Lincoln perhaps offers some insight into why Norton-Cuffy takes these things in his stride. "He is a really interesting character."
O'Donnell was impressed for other reasons too. "You had to drag him off the training ground. His work ethic was unbelievable. He was really good and he has just grown and developed. He went back to Arsenal and then got the opportunity to go to Rotherham."
The Championship was a level up for Norton-Cuffy - and an education. O'Donnell sees him as "a right full-back or wing-back" but he was thrust into the latter role with the Millers. "The team was pretty regimented as a back three," Matt Taylor tells Sky Sports.
Taylor was Rotherham's manager at the time. "He did fantastically well in that first half of the season." But it was a grind. "Rotherham in the Championship is difficult if you are an 18-year-old kid with no real experience." Unsurprisingly, there were tough times too.
"He still showed what a good player he was but, physically, it just started to take its toll in the winter months," Taylor explains. "He would cramp up quite early. Playing wing-back was just quite a load for a young lad playing for Rotherham in the Championship."
It is hard to imagine Norton-Cuffy struggling with that. "You look at him now and he is quite a specimen, to be fair. He had the frame, he had the pace and the power. He is so dynamic and explosive." As they say, you win or you learn. And Norton-Cuffy learned.
"I really admire what he has done, going out to play games at such a young age when so many players stay in that academy system for too long. Then they eventually go out on loan when they are 20 or 21 and they find out about real football. He was doing it at 17."
So, what did he find out at Rotherham? "How to defend the back post. Full-backs at top academies are more comfortable in attacking situations. He learned his defensive responsibilities, opening the shoulders, knowing the dangers around you."
Taylor points out that this "probably set him in good stead for the next stage of his career" which came with a mid-season move to Coventry. Norton-Cuffy swapped a relegation battle with Rotherham for a promotion push with Mark Robins' Sky Blues.
"We wanted to keep him but I think Arsenal felt that playing for a better team, he might get more rhythm, which was probably true," admits Taylor. "At Rotherham, we were so bitty as a team at that level, it was so difficult for him." At Coventry, it was different.
Norton-Cuffy played in a Championship play-off final in front of over 85,000 people at Wembley before having a full season at Millwall. It was only after this that he made the permanent move from Arsenal to Genoa, adding to his football education in Serie A.
Italy is an examination more demanding of mind than body, still the most tactical league in Europe. A new language and culture, a higher standard of football, and plenty of highlights. The pick might have been a late winner with his left foot against Udinese.
Seeing Norton-Cuffy in Slovakia last summer at the European Under-21 Championship was to see the versatile game-changer that he has become. He came on as a substitute in both the semi-final and the final with the scores level. England won both matches.
He is no longer the green individual who nevertheless had the courage to challenge an experienced colleague at Lincoln. He is now ideally suited to the rigours of the Premier League. "His physicality and his experience is fantastic for his age," concludes Taylor.
"There is no reason why he cannot keep progressing. He is a hungry lad, who wants to learn and has been nicely managed so he is easily coachable as well. There is no reason why he cannot do well in the Premier League and become a full-grown international."
