2018–19 Stoke City F.C. season
The 2018–19 season was Stoke City's 102nd season in the Football League, the 42nd in the second tier and fifth in the Championship.
| 2018–19 season | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Chairman | Peter Coates | ||
| Manager | Gary Rowett (until 8 January) Nathan Jones (from 9 January) | ||
| Stadium | bet365 Stadium | ||
| Championship | 16th | ||
| FA Cup | Third round | ||
| EFL Cup | Third round | ||
| Top goalscorer | League: Benik Afobe (8) All: Benik Afobe (9) | ||
| Highest home attendance | 28,586 v Leeds United (19 January 2019) | ||
| Lowest home attendance | 22,078 v Swansea City (18 September 2018) | ||
| Average home league attendance | 25,200 | ||
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Following last season's relegation from the Premier League, Stoke replaced Paul Lambert with Gary Rowett who was tasked with mounting a promotion challenge. Inevitably there were a large number of departures and new arrivals during the summer, Stoke spending over £30 million on Benik Afobe, Sam Clucas, Peter Etebo, Tom Ince and James McClean. However Stoke made a bad start to the campaign losing against Leeds United, Wigan Athletic and West Bromwich Albion. Stoke struggled to close the gap on the play-off positions despite going on a ten-game unbeaten run of which six were draws and ended 2018 in mid-table. Rowett was sacked at the beginning of January 2019 and was replaced by Luton Town's Nathan Jones.
Despite an early victory over Leeds United it soon became apparent that a squad re-build would be required so Jones experimented with his squad for the remainder of the campaign with Stoke eventually finishing in 16th position after drawing a record 22 times (of which nine were 0–0).