Gorkss signed for QPR in the summer of 2008 for £250k after a lengthy row between Rangers and his former club Blackpool and excelled in his first season at Loftus Road.

DOB – 06/11/81
Height – 6ft 3ins
Weight – 13st
Contract – 2011

Gorkss first came to the attention of many QPR fans when he scored for Blackpool at Loftus Road in a 3-2 win for the Super Hoops in March 2008. His strong, no nonsense style of defending and eye for goal made him a big hit with supporters of the Tangerines and it was no surprise when the club kicked up a bit of a fuss when QPR tried to buy the Latvian international centre half once the season was over.

Gorkss was one of a number of players at Blackpool with a low release clause fee in his contract and QPR sought to take advantage of that and buy the player for the £250k fee specified by the clause. However Blackpool immediately cried foul, saying Rangers had spoken to the player and made it clear that he’d be on good money in W12 before they’d actually made an offer to Blackpool for his services. Pool Chairman Karl Oyston smelt a chance to keep his prized asset despite the clause and immediately reported QPR to the league for making an immediate approach.

Cutting a long story short, if you want to relive the three months of farce over this deal then there is a timeline at the following link, QPR were able to force the move through by offering Blackpool Daniel Nardiello and Zesh Rehman in addition to the £250k. Gorkss finally signed his QPR contract on July 31 2008.

It initially looked like the effort was all for nothing as Gorkss endured a nervy start to life in Hoops with poor performances against Barnsley and Sheff Utd at the start of the 2008/09 season. He lost his place in the team to Damion Stewart and had to wait until November when Fitz Hall was sent off at Watford for a second chance. He grabbed it with both hands remaining in place for the rest of the season, topping the LFW man of the match charts and finishing second in the club's Player of the Season vote. QPR's poor delivery on set pieces prevented him furthering his reputation as a goalscoring centre half after eight goals at Blackpool in 2007/08 but he excelled everywhere else and should be one of the first names on Jim Magilton's team sheet come August.

It was Blackpool that first brought him to this country in January 2007 as they were pushing for promotion from League One to the Championship. He started his career with FK Auda in his homeland before moving on to play for Östers IF (Sweden), Assyriska Föreningen (Sweden) and FK Ventspils (Latvia) which is where Blackpool first spotted him. Gorkss also has 17 caps for Latvia.

Photo: Action Images

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