the devil and the deep blue sea

Prepositional phrase

1. (idiomatic) Between undesirable alternatives.
   • Talking about the old Players' Union, it reminds me that at one meeting we had, a player stated that if a club had a horse they wanted to part with, some one would have to find the horse in fodder until the negotiations were finished. A player is during that time between the devil and the deep blue...1908, John Cameron, Association Football and How to Play It, Chapter 11

   Synonyms:

   between a rock and a hard place, between Scylla and Charybdis, between the hammer and the anvil, between two fires, damned if one does and damned if one doesn't, doomed if you do, doomed if you don't, in a cleft stick, in bad bread, on the horns of a dilemma