Polo 1.1 Gearbox failure? or clutch? lol

I bought my first car Monday. It is old, 1990 but has only done 84,000 miles and seemed in really good condition... All seemed fine when I got my mate to look it over. As I was driving it back from collection, I'd got about halfway back and it started making a bit of a whirrling noise. Then it just started losing drive, it was still revving but was slowing and I had to pull over as there was a hill. Luckily my mate I went to collect it with took me home and I was able to get my bf and his brother to tow it back that night. I'm totally gutted, dunno whether to laugh or cry. It was sold as seen so I don't think I can even do anything about it, so I'm just going to try and get it fixed. Only thing is one mechanic who looked at it thought it was the clutch and the other thinks its the gearbox. How much am I looking at for these jobs roughly? I didnt want to get them to order anything until they were certain it's needed. I half feel like taking a sledge hammer to it lol

Sounds like a clutch, the mileage can be a clue, remember its a 17 year old car and that mileage(if genuine) would usually indicate lots of gear changes round town over the years. Its not a big job to change a clutch on these cars, not sure of cost, older cars are easy to work on hence less time/cost. To be fair a good mechanic will identify the problem easily.