Carlos Alcaraz 'to undergo Southampton medical on Tuesday ahead of £12.3m move'

The Saints are keen to make reinforcements to their first-team squad this month as they bid to move out of the Premier League relegation zone.

Croatia international Mislav Orsic became Nathan Jones's first signing at St Mary's last week, but the 49-year-old has revealed that the club are in the market for another 'three or four' players before the winter window closes.

Asked about potential incomings following Southampton's 2-1 win over Crystal Palace in the FA Cup on Saturday, Jones said: "It's not the amount, it's the quality of what we do.

"So there won't be 10, but if we can get three or four real quality additions that improve us, then that's what we want. Because it'll freshen stuff up and there's a good group there."

According to journalists Cesar Luis Melo and Leandro Adonio Belli, Southampton have reached an agreement with Racing Club to sign 20-year-old Alvarez for an initial fee of €14m (£12.3m) plus a €1m (£880,000) performance-related bonus.

Melo and Belli add that the midfielder is set to sign a four-and-a-half-year contract at St Mary's until June 2027 and will fly to England to undergo his medical on Tuesday.

Racing Club are said to have included a 15% sell-on clause in Southampton's deal for Alcaraz, who had also attracted interest from Inter Milan and Benfica earlier in the window.

Born in La Plata, Alcaraz joined Racing Club's youth academy in 2017 before making his professional debut for the first team in January 2020.

The midfielder has since featured 83 times in total for the senior team across all competitions, scoring 12 goals and registering six assists.

In his last match for Racing Club in November, Alcaraz scored the winning goal to help the Argentine outfit secure a 2-1 extra-time victory against Boca Juniors in the final of the 2022 Trofeo de Campeones de la Liga Profesional, and he was one of 10 players who was sent off at the end of a fiery contest.

Should Alcaraz complete his move to St Mary's, the youngster will compete with the likes of James Ward-Prowse, Romeo Lavia, Ibrahima Diallo and Ainsley Maitland-Niles for a place in centre-midfield.

Elsewhere, Southampton are reportedly keeping tabs on Celtic forward Daizen Maeda, while they are also said to have had a £15m bid rejected for Lorient striker Terem Moffi.