The 2005–06 season was Stoke City's 99th season in the Football League, the 39th in the second tier and second in the Championship. In June 2005 Tony Pulis was sacked by Stoke's Icelandic board and Dutch manager Johan Boskamp was appointed. He went about changing Stoke's style of play to a more European passing style which also meant a decent number of foreign players were signed by the club. The change in style had mixed success whilst Stoke did play good attacking football the defensive qualities by Pulis's side went missing and Stoke suffered some poor defeats particularly at home. Stoke were far too inconsistent to be anything other than a mid-table side and they finished in 13th position. At the end of the season Boskamp left the club and Icelandic chairman Gunnar Gíslason put the clu