I think you’ve hit the nail on the head regarding playing style. The below Interview with MA suggested that conversations were taking place.
From Lincolnshire Live website on 16th April.
“It’s clarity. All I ever want and ask for is clarity, transparency, we’ve got to be straight with each other,” Appleton told LincolnshireLive. “We’ll have discussions between now and the end of the season with the likes of Liam, Jez [George, director of football], Clive and decide how we’re going to move forward, how we’re going to do it.
“For me, I came in to do a job, to do a certain model, to play in a certain way, developing players, creating a return on investment in players. I think we’ve started to do that. We’ve got three or four players in the group who have definitely got value. Hopefully, that’s only the start of it. What we don’t want to do is sleepwalk into trouble. It’s my job and the club’s job to make sure that doesn’t happen.”
On the club’s business model going forward, Appleton said: “For me, if we’re not going to continue this model, there’s no point me being here. At the end of the day, there’s more equipped people out there to play in a more pragmatic style than what I do. I’ve got no qualms with that. My so called USP [unique selling point] is a certain type. I think everyone knows that by now. As long as that’s the same, and I can continue to do it in that manner, I’ll be happy.”