Crawl under the car and loosen the slave a little bit. Have somebody else press the clutch. See if the slave rod is actually getting resistance from the lever that is operating the release bearing (inside the bell housing). If working properly, you should see the slave straining under pressure when clutch is pressed. If no movement, the slave bearing's rod may not be properly engaged with the release bearing lever and just poking in air. The system needs the spring action from the pressure plate to push back the release bearing and lever to push back the slave cyclinder rod and piston (and this pushes hydraulic fluid back to master cylinder and pushes back the pedal).

You could also have a broken or disengaged lever inside the bell housing that is simply not pushing down on the release bearing.

If the release bearing is broken (shattered), you may get the same symptoms because the lever has more movement than usual and will not get pushed back by pressure plate.

I just read your first post again and if this car did not run at all when you bought it, it may have been parked due to a bad release bearing. If you can crank the car, and you hear a bunch of crunching, then your release bearing is toast. They are not expensive, but you do need to take the transmission out to fix this, which is not that difficult. Sounds like you may have to take a look in the bell housing to see what is going on.

Good luck,

Bert

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'70 111 280SE/c 3.5 (4 spd manual) - sold
'63 MGB
'73 MGBGT V8