2018–19 Stoke City F.C. season
| 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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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.
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).