IT MAY well be that history and perspective sometimes count for more than reality. Inter Milan, in recent years the by-word for underachievement, mismanagement and shattered dreams, still do not seem to be taken seriously as a European force. Even when they do receive compliments, there's a backhanded nature to them. Both Jose Mourinho and Arsene Wenger - two men who know their football despite vastly diverging outlooks on how it should be played - anointed Inter as the strongest squad in Europe this season, but stopped short of describing them as the best side.

The numbers are all in their favour. In the last 12 months, they have lost just three times in all competitions. Twice to Roma and once to Fenerbahce. Contrast this with the other top sides in Europe. Chelsea lost six, Real Madrid nine, Barcelona and Arsenal 10, Manchester United 11 and Liverpool and AC Milan. And still, one gets the sense that the nerazzurri are not taken seriously.

"It's not my problem," says Roberto Mancini, the Inter manager. "If people want to say that we've benefited from the scandal of 2006 because other big clubs in Italy have been punished I would say two things to that. First, if others were punished it's because they were doing something wrong, which meant we were the ones being penalised before. And second, our European record is pretty good when you look at how we went out."

Indeed, in three of the last five seasons Inter were knocked out on the away goals rule. On another occasion, they were bounced in the quarter-finals by AC Milan in the infamous game when Nelson Dida was hit by a flare. Yet the question remains: how good are they really? Some indication may come in the next few days as they take on Juventus this evening and CSKA Moscow in midweek.

The first thing that strikes you when looking at Inter is just how they are a side built to win here and now. No starter is under the age of 26 and most of the first XI is the wrong side of 30. Yet unlike AC Milan, another side which is long in the tooth, Inter have loads of depth. Their hypothetical second XI features four Argentine internationals with 93 caps between them (Walter Samuel, Julio Cruz, Santiago Solari and Nicolas Burdisso), plus Adriano and David Suazo, scorer of 36 Serie A goals over the past two seasons. Mancini is able to rotate his side and keep his veterans fresh.

The key going forward, however, is one of the most unorthodox players in the game today: Zlatan Ibrahimovic, pictured right. "Put a small, quick guy on him and Zlatan will flatten him," says defender Marco Materazzi. "Put a big strong defender on him and he'll make him look silly with his array of tricks. Put two guys on him and he'll simply invent a brilliant pass out of nothing and find the open man. God, I hated playing against him."

Ibrahimovic often looks like a 14-year-old playing on a school yard with eight-year-olds. He towers over them, pushes them around and humiliates them with a battery of flicks and backheels. Yet there is a price to be paid for his genius. He is also one of the most volatile players in the game. Harnessing his tremendous gifts has been a work in progress for Mancini, but one which is already yielding results.

"I've grown, I'm older, I have a different perspective," says Ibrahimovic. "I'm a husband, a father, a leader. Yet people sometimes still treat me sometimes as if I were crazy or a troublemaker. What am I supposed to do? I just try to do my best and I think I'm calmer than I was before."

In some ways, by surrounding him with veterans who have seen it all has helped get the best out of him. With Hernan Crespo as his strike partner, Esteban Cambiasso, Dejan Stankovic and Patrick Vieira working to get him the ball in midfield, he has team-mates who are happy to concede the stage as long as he provides the kind of service he is paid to provide.

Ibrahimovic is central to Inter's hopes this season because there is only one other naturally creative player in Mancini's squad, Luis Figo, and he's 34. Mancini doles out his time on the pitch carefully, knowing that the Portuguese winger simply can't be expected to play more than once a week. "I'm an old man," jokes Figo. "They need to keep me fresh, when they don't need me, they put me back in the refrigerator."

Mancini's handling of the likes of Ibrahimovic and Figo - getting the former to calm down and the latter to accept a bit-part role - has been one of his greatest achievements. It may have something to do with his own past as an outrageously gifted "number 10" who had the misfortune of belonging to the same generation of Roberto Baggio and Gianfranco Zola. "It's true, maybe my own experience has helped me," he says. "When I was younger, at times, I felt like I had to do everything, like Zlatan. And, later in my career, at Lazio, I learned to accept a reduced role, I learned to pace myself for the good of the team. A bit like Figo is doing."

Mancini's other great achievement has been to give the club some stability. In the past 25 years, only one manager - Giovanni Trapattoni - has stuck around for five seasons. Mancini is into his fourth, which is perhaps as meaningful as the two league titles won during his tenure (one of which was awarded in the wake of the 2006 scandal, the other, won last season, when much of the competition was burdened with penalty points). But Mancini, like most Inter supporters, knows all too well that the real test comes this season.