GettyImagesLoic Remy and Yann M'Vila will be tasked with leading QPR out of danger

If the January transfer window is the last refuge of the desperate, then it is no surprise to see Queens Park Rangers sticking their head above the parapet. That the Premier League's bottom side have managed to snare the well-regarded French international pair Loic Remy and, if reports are to be believed, Yann M'Vila is a surprise to many more than Harry Redknapp, but that doesn't mean it's without an element of risk.

- Remy signs for Queens Park Rangers

Five points from safety with just two wins from 22 games played so far; it's now or never for QPR. This dual signing may be a gamble, but it is a calculated one. Rangers won't be well served by buying another half-dozen players in an extension of the scattergun approach that failed under Mark Hughes. They simply don't have the time to bed in half a new team. What they need are a couple of players of significant quality and personality to profoundly affect their fortunes quickly, in the little breathing space available to them.

Remy and M'Vila are - potentially - those two players. The 25-year-old former Marseille striker can provide the pace, power and goals that QPR have so badly lacked, while M'Vila (a product of Rennes' esteemed academy) can offer bite and organisation at the heart of what has all too frequently been a vapid midfield.

Fans must be under no illusions. The pair are relatively cheap for a reason. At this time last year, purchasing these two would have set any club back in excess of £40 million in transfer fees alone, rather than the estimated £15 million cost today. Since then, their respective stars have crashed to earth.

After Redknapp attempted to sign him for Tottenham last year, Remy endured an awful 2012, beset by niggling injuries and scratchy form. He has scored just once in 14 Ligue 1 appearances in the current season (only two starts), which he has spent most of playing second fiddle to Andre-Pierre Gignac. Given QPR's need for instant productivity, this is a concern, though his goalscoring record for Nice and Marseille had been good up until that annus horribilis, and he became an important option for France post-World Cup 2010.

M'Vila's problems in the last year have mainly been of an off-field nature. In the last year he has almost come to blows with a fan at a club reception, been arrested on suspicion of hitting a teenage boy and finally been caught skipping out of camp while on Under-21 duty (having been demoted) to go nightclubbing in Paris, an expedition which ultimately saw him banned by the French Football Federation (FFF) from France national team involvement until the end of June 2014.

Coupled with his own previous confessions of a difficult upbringing, he has swiftly been branded as a rotten apple. Yet he has already turned himself around once after some turbulent early moments at Rennes, with the faith of coach Frederic Antonetti guiding him into the first-team and onto international recognition. On his France debut in Norway in August 2010, M'Vila looked so composed that one could have mistaken him for a 60-cap veteran. From then on, Laurent Blanc built his side around the Rennes tyro. More recently M'Vila has edged himself back towards his best form, despite the error in front of the watching Redknapp which led to Yoan Gouffran's opener for Bordeaux on Saturday night.

The good news is that a few hearty lungfuls of English air will probably do both of these young men some good. Remy's erstwhile colleague at the Lyon academy, Hatem Ben Arfa, told BeIn Sport on Monday night that "getting away from France will do him good," even if the Newcastle winger was assuming the striker would be sharing dressing room space with him at St James's Park at the time. That M'Vila could do with a fresh start to reinvent his image outside the Hexagon is not news to anybody.

Remy's goals would be especially crucial to QPR's chances of escaping from the mire. His physical and technical characteristics give him every chance of succeeding in England, and he has grown exponentially from the youngster who laboured in the shadows of peers Ben Arfa and Karim Benzema at Lyon. Remy has worked tirelessly to improve every aspect of his game, with his now-imperious heading of the ball being a prime example.

Redknapp could now have some power and substance to his midfield as well, with a rugged central pairing of M'Vila and fellow former Ligue 1 alumnus Stephane M'Bia promising to give QPR some backbone. M'Vila's successful adaptation could even expedite the return of M'Bia to centre-back, a position in which he was so adept for Marseille's 2010 Ligue 1-winning side, even if the Cameroonian prefers to play in the middle of the park. The lack of appropriate midfield shield for him in this role at Loftus Road saw his assurance go out of the window - note the position by the corner flag in which he found himself making the foul on Thomas Vermaelen that landed him a crucial red card in the late defeat at Arsenal back in October.

So how will it turn out? The worst case scenario is that Rangers get relegated, and ship out the France internationals on affordable release clauses, getting their hefty salaries off the payroll. The best outcome would be a handsome one in both a sporting and a financial sense. It would include retention of the club's Premier League spot, access to a share of the increased television rights deal that begins from next season, a bump in QPR's on-pitch image from the laughing stock they've been for most of this season and the prospect of selling Remy and M'Vila on to one of the Premier League's leading lights at a handsome profit.

Their signings are a last throw of the dice, but what else can QPR do? They say that fortune favours the brave, and it is difficult to argue that Redknapp has lacked courage in his managerial career, even for his sternest critics. If Remy and M'Vila can show some of the same, QPR's great escape could be on.

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