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 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. "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.
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