Once upon a time, not so very long ago, there was a football team called Valencia and they were good. They won the Copa del Rey and they reached the European Cup final. Twice. They did what no one has done in a decade and took the league title off Real Madrid and Barcelona. In fact, they did that twice too. They won the Uefa Cup and they headed into Europe every year. In 15 seasons they finished outside the top six just once and they made up for that by winning the Copa del Rey again. Not that anyone was satisfied; the manager was sacked anyway and no tears were shed. Just as they weren't satisfied with three successive third-placed finishes.

How they'd welcome the chance to finish third now. But that Valencia don't come round here any more. In midweek they played before 75 people and lost 3-0 in Basle and this morning they're 25 points off third. They're eighth and closer in points to the relegation zone than the final Champions League place. Sunday night's visit to Real Valladolid was presented as an opportunity – an opportunity?! – to chase the final Europa League spot: win and they'd be 'just' six points behind Villarreal. But they didn't win. Instead, Monday night is an opportunity for neighbours Levante, a club Valencia largely ignore: win and Levante will climb above Valencia; finish the season there and it would be the first time ever.

As the phrase has it, Valladolid was the last train to Europe. Valencia didn't run for it. There was no sprinting across the concourse, no hurdling over the ticket barrier, no skidding along the platform or diving through the door. There was just a resigned shrug: oh well, there goes another one. It finished 0-0 and that felt depressingly right, rather fitting really. Afterwards Valladolid's manager, Juan Ignacio Martínez, insisted that although the point did not help his team much – only goal difference keeps them out of the relegation zone – there was reason to be satisfied. The point was a good one. "Our opponents were Valencia," he said. "We're not just talking about any old team, we're talking about Valencia."

But that's the thing: Valencia are any old team. And that's the saddest thing of all. There is something a bit depressing about watching them now, something a bit "so what?", something a bit "whatever happened to …?" It hurts to say, but at the moment they're not far off becoming an irrelevance. When Valencia sacked Ronald Koeman, they were right. When they were unconvinced by Unai Emery, they might not have been right but it was understandable: although they finished third, they never truly came close – the gap between them and the champions was 28, 25 and 39 points and they couldn't beat the big teams. Most thought they should finish third. They're the third most-supported club in Spain with the third biggest TV deal.

They kept selling players, sure, and the crisis was gigantic. Everyone knew about the €220m debt with Bankia and about the two stadiums and about David Silva and David Villa, Juan Mata and Jordi Alba. They knew that Roberto Soldado, top scorer for three seasons in a row, would go and he went, trapped now in his gilded cage. But they overcame and competed, and most felt entitled to demand more. Now, it feels like they have slipped into an uncomfortable numbness, a state of nothing. Like the best thing that can happen this season is for it to end. It will end empty: not even relief, probably not even pride. There's no drama, no rebellion, and pretty much no resistance, just a kind of purgatory. Mid-table mediocrity and institutional limbo.

Valencia are up for sale. When the Singaporean businessman Peter Lim announced his intention to buy Valencia, he set a 15 January deadline. Two and a-half months later, they've still not been sold, the future put on hold. There are seven bids for the club: Lim is one, another is unknown, there are two US based investment funds (one of which has Dan Quayle behind it), Arabic investment company Unic Premier 54, a Chinese firm called Dalian Wanda and the Russian constructor Mijail Bosco. There is no definitive timescale on when a decision will be made. The decision-making process will involve the club itself, the club's Foundation, and Bankia. Meanwhile, they wait. And drift.

Miroslav Djukic was sacked in December, the second of the young coaches to be brought in as a symbol of the club's future, following Mauricio Pellegrino the season before. Neither lasted more than half a season. Youth team coach Nico Estévez took over for the game against Real Madrid and Valencia were unfortunate to lose 3-2 to Real Madrid. Juan Antonio Pizzi became manager two days after Christmas and under him Valencia beat Barcelona 3-2, not just the only side to win at the Camp Nou all season but the only side to even get a point there. There is a quiet intelligence to the way Pizzi talks. They've been unlucky with injuries: this weekend, they had only one centre-back available. There have been occasional good performances. Seydou Keita scored the second-fastest goal in league history. And it is not all bad: Dani Parejo and Paco Alcácer have impressed at times, Fede too.

So, yes, look for reasons to be cheerful and you might find them. It is an exaggeration to talk of crisis and declare this the end. It might yet even be the beginning. But it is hard not to be overwhelmed by the averageness of everything. The headline on the front of the Valencia sports daily Super Deporte this morning declared: "no use for anything"; they meant the 0-0 draw but they probably meant more too. The headline was splashed across a picture of the team.

Valencia have been up and down like a yo-yo with the string cut off. No risk of going down, no real chance of a European place. Not a bad team but not a particularly good one either, gazing across at Espanyol and Levante: here I am stuck in the middle with you. They're eighth now, the same position they have occupied for seven of the last 10 weeks. They could slip to ninth tonight. The last 22 weeks have been spent between 11th and seventh, and the latter is a position they've only occupied once. Under Pizzi, they have won six, lost six and drawn six. Only once have they managed to win two in a row.

Last night, Valencia had 16 shots, seven of them on target. They should have scored; Alcácer had two wonderful opportunities and Vargas missed a sitter. AS described them as coming up against "the wall that was [Valladolid goalkeeper] Jaime." That makes it sounds like a good game and like they were desperately unlucky, but it wasn't and they weren't really. If Alcácer had scored perhaps the sensations would be different but he didn't and had he done it might have been mere make-up on the face of the malaise.

"Valencia stood up to be counted for; they showed their pride," commented the former Atlético Madrid striker Kiko on television. It was hard to agree and there's something sad about the possibility that Valencia could have been satisfied with this, that this might be acceptable, still less something to be proud of. Others disagreed. El Mundo Deportivo called it "pathetic," Marca lamented Valencia's "depression" and "lack of self-esteem", while the match report in El Mundo's 16-page sports pull out contained a total of zero words. And that was the most eloquent comment of all.

Afterwards Pizzi sighed: "We're in an intermediate situation." Before the game he'd admitted: "It's not chance. We're not so good."

Talking points

• Up in his glass box, the suspended Getafe manager, Cosmin Contra, smashed his fist on the desk once, twice, three times, then four, then five. The two water bottles on the desk shot up in the air and outside so did 34,000 people. Boakye had just scored a 93rd-minute goal to take Elche to a 1-0 win over Getafe and the fans were going wild. A moment later the referee blew the final whistle and the home dugout emptied, players racing on to the pitch to embrace and celebrate, as if they were definitively safe. They're not yet, but this was a huge step, a seven-point victory: Elche took three points, Getafe lost three points and Elche also claimed an unassailable head-to-head advantage over their opponents. They climbed up to 14th, four points clear of Getafe, who now occupy the last of the relegation places.

• Europe are getting a lot of outings these days. The Final Countdown booms out after every goal that Rayo Vallecano score at home and they're scoring quite a lot of late. They've now won four and drawn one of their last six … and the one they lost was last week's 5-0 thumping at the Bernabéu. This weekend they beat Celta 3-0 and Rayo are now up in 12th place, five points and five teams away from relegation. Turns out that philosophy does work, after all: Paco Jémez will live with his ideas, not die with them.

• It was a big week too for Málaga, whose first home win since 1 February means that they're virtually safe on 38 points.

• At the top, no one gave way. Atlético weren't so much running on empty as running off the energy that Diego Simeone was emanating from the touchline, leaping and jumping and leading the fans, choreographing the Calderón. They struggled and limped towards the finish but largely kept Villarreal at arm's length in a 1-0 win. Barcelona were basically not very good as they beat Betis 3-1, with two penalties (one scored as a follow-up) and an own goal from the edge of the area. "Sometimes, in exceptional circumstances, you have to value the result not the performance," Martino admitted. And Real Madrid struggled against Real Sociedad in the first half but then scored a 44th-minute opener and dominated the second half. Gareth Bale got his 13th league goal of the season with a belter after Bravo gifted him the ball 30 yards out.

• Goal of the week? Well, Gareth Bale's was pretty tasty but it surely has to be this one …

Results: Almería 1-2 Osasuna, Atlético 1-0 Villarreal, Barcelona 3-1 Betis, Real Sociedad 0-4 Real Madrid, Rayo 3-0 Celta, Málaga 4-1 Granada, Elche 1-0 Getafe, Sevilla 4-1 Espanyol, Valladolid 0-0 Valencia. Tonight: if it's Monday it must be Athletic ... this time they travel to Levante.

• La liga table