Well if he joins a club like Fulham or West Ham for more money then we are best not signing him.
People keep saying this as if it's some huge honour to represent us. Maybe for a born and bred Geordie it is, but I imagine for most football players any transfer deal is a tradeoff between wages, club profile and player prospect/squad role. Realistically we have to compete in the wages department just like everybody else if we want to attract the best players.
I agree with you that we do have to compete on wages but our long term prospects of success are greater than that of Fulham or West Ham i.e better squad, higher recent league position, strong fan base, and potential to lure other quality players to further strengthen the team (see Debuchy indicating he would like to join).
How much more would West Ham or Fulham offer than us? If the differentials are not too great i.e we offer £40K and they offer £45K a week I'd like to think a sane player would forgo the extra in favour of better prospects of long term success.