If Notts win tonight and Charlie Slater asks him about it after the game, then Charlie is only doing his job, but I kind of hope that he just leaves it for Burch to either come out and flat out deny it (because he feels the need to do so) or doesn't because he knows he's off, rather than sidestepping the question again.

We had this with Warnock at the 2nd Wembley final when Chelsea were expressing interest in him and we still went on to win, though IIRC that only came up a few days before the final and not before the semis. Also, times were different then, we would have still fully expected the team to stick together because players didn't come and go in anything like the same frequency they do now.
Managers must have to go that extra mile to instil a sense of togetherness and fighting for a common cause in the modern game whereas that wold have come naturally in the past with many more players having been around for years and others coming through the ranks, that demand for unity is less likely to come from Burch now, or less likely to be taken as sincere.