List of Stoke City F.C. seasons

in 1863 they soon dropped the 'Ramblers' name and simply became known as Stoke F.C., and they played in friendlies against local and national sides as well as competing in the Staffordshire Senior Cup which was a prestigious competition at the time.

[1] They continued with this type of fixture list until in 1888 the Football League was founded and Stoke became founder members.

[1] Despite the divisional changes Stoke brought through a number of promising youth players most notably that of Stanley Matthews.

[1] Immediately after World War II Stoke were involved in a title race and they had the chance to become champions of England for the first time on the final day of the 1946–47 season they needed to beat Sheffield United to claim the title, but they lost 2–1 and ended up finishing 4th for the second time.

[1] However Stoke's Victoria Ground was damaged by gale-force winds in January 1976 and the club had to sell their best players to cover the cost for the repairs.

[1] Lou Macari got Stoke out of the Third Division at the second time of asking and guided the club to the 1995–96 play-offs but lost out to Leicester City.

Tony Pulis became Stoke manager in November 2002 and lead the club to safety on the final day of the 2002–03 season.

Pulis was replaced by Mark Hughes in May 2013 and he guided the club to their highest Premier League position of 9th in three successive seasons 2013–14, 2014–15 and 2015–16.