Arsenal could be in for another cash boost straight away if one of their former young talents is chased by three of Italy’s top clubs.
Brooke Norton-Cuffy thrived in his second season in Serie A after completing a cut-price £3.5million move to Genoa last year.
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The 21-year-old, who trained at Chelsea before joining Arsenal’s youth team as a teenager, spent almost a decade with the Gunners.
At the time of his Italy adventure in August 2024, he had made over 100 appearances for the senior national team, but none of them for Arsenal.
The defender has had loan spells at Lincoln, Rotherham and Millwall and even started for Coventry alongside Viktor Gyokeres in their Championship play-off final defeat on penalties against Luton Town.
Three Serie A giants are chasing Norton-Cuffy
Norton-Cuffy followed Samuel Iling-Junior, a childhood friend, when he left a London club after arriving in Genoa and moved to Serie A.
Injuries limited him to just eight league starts in his first season in Italy, including six from the end of April.
Norton-Cuffy helped England defend their European Under-21 title this summer before flourishing again in Genoa.
Patrick Vieira left the club last month after suffering the worst start to a season ever in Serie A, but his work with Norton-Cuffy remained a key highlight.
The latter started Genoa’s first 12 league games this season either at right-back or in right midfield and also provided an assist.
His form has attracted the attention of both Inter Milan and Juventus, and reigning Serie A champions Napoli are also said to be interested.
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Arsenal are about to win a transfer
The Gunners included a significant sell-on clause as part of the initial £1.75m deal, as well as a further £1.75m in bonuses to sell Norton-Cuffy.
And European football expert Andy Brassell has claimed that the Gooners should thank icon Vieira for the price increase.
“We can kind of unfairly label younger players and say, look, Brits and especially English people aren’t great travellers,” Brassell told The Pitch Prospect exclusively. “I don’t think it really counts anymore for a number of reasons.
“Firstly, football is truly multinational. Secondly, it’s a completely different generation. Thirdly, we’re actually almost the other side of FIFA’s Islamization of football because these guys have all grown up with FIFA, EAFC now.”
“So you played with Milan and Dortmund and Bayern and PSG and maybe also with Borussia Mönchengladbach and Genoa.”
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Norton-Cuffy has “really improved” under Vieira.
“I think in some cases the big clubs in those leagues will mean as much to them as some of the biggest clubs in the Premier League because they see them in the context of the Champions League or Europa League,” Brassell continued.
“Well, Norton-Cuffy clearly needed a chance. I think that [Patrick] The connection with Vieira is important because he has really been on the rise over the last year.
“Although he has since been fired by Genoa after they didn’t have a brilliant start to the season, the first thing Vieira managed to do was get Genoa to stop losing goals.”
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“The way he taught them to defend economically, sensibly and collectively, we already knew that Norton-Cuffy could handle the ball well.”
“But I think under Vieira he has really improved a lot as a defender too.”
“That’s why you’re attracting interest from Juventus and Napoli at this point, because being great on the ball is great, but if you can’t defend, Antonio Conte won’t be interested in you. I think that’s pretty clear.”
“So it’s a testament to how hard he worked on his game, but also how well Vieira did with him during his time at Genoa.”